Daun leading the charge for a diverse legal field

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As a Milwaukee native, Margaret Daun received firsthand experience in the difference diversity can make.

Daun attended parochial school before moving on to Rufus King High School, which has one of the state’s most diverse student bodies. She then went to college at Marquette University, where much of that diversity was suddenly missing.

“It was sort of a reverse culture shock when I got there,” she said. “It was very strange to be in a higher education setting where many classes didn’t have a single person of color. And I thought it was just very weird.”

Daun was named Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel in 2017, and she has applied her passion to the legal field in the Milwaukee area. She started asking for diversity information from law firms the county works with to find out the makeup of staffs.

“I separated it out from their overall numbers, including the associates and the support staff from the partnership ranks, specifically the equity partnership ranks,” she said. “We’ve shone a bright light on equity data.”

Daun made the data public to continue the discussion on diversity and find ways to encourage more diversity within the legal ranks.
“We can’t solve the problem unless we admit there is one,” she said. “So the first thing is everyone needs to get some religion and get some truth on the fact that the numbers are terrible.”

Daun has worked with the county as well to make sure it is getting diverse applicants for legal positions. Milwaukee County also started an Office on African American Affairs, which is rolling out education issues aimed at fostering difficult discussions on race, gender sexual identity and orientation.

“I like working in a more diverse workplace,” she said. “I like people with a different background to challenge my ideas. I think it improves outcomes.”

Emery Harlan, partner with MWH Law Group, said Daun’s efforts to collect data on the diversity of the legal staff at major law firms in the Milwaukee area is driving meaningful change.

In the 30 years since Harlan entered the legal profession, he said the topic of diversity has come up before, but has taken different detours. Daun’s passion, he said, coupled with action is changing that.

“I think a lot of those firms were surprised and embarrassed to have the lack of diversity within their respective firms publicized,” Harlan said. “I think that brought them to the table and caused them to have some very serious discussions about what kinds of steps they can take to do much better when it comes to making positive changes.”