A strategic priority of the GJCOM is to increase awareness of gender inequality in the legal profession and leverage effective responses to gender inequality.

Progress is being made in increasing awareness of gender and justice issues and lessening gender-based inequities throughout the public sector portion of the Washington State courts and justice system. However, efforts to address gender and justice issues in the private legal sector, especially the private bar, and the business and family law focused portions of the ADR profession, have lagged behind. Consequently, increased Commission attention is being directed at engaging the private legal sector in identifying and addressing gender and justice issues.

Activities directed at addressing gender and justice issues in the private legal sector will include developing programs and projects directed at:

• inventorying best practices for working with the private legal sector from across the nation on gender and justice issues;
• cataloging the gender and justice implications of domestic partnership laws, including the implications on gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered communities;
• exploring the nexus between gender and justice improvements and racial and ethnic diversity; and
• examining the gender and justice implications of family law reform in general.