Attorneys of color have made some progress in landing leadership roles in multi-district litigation. But as the MDL leadership quota for nonwhite attorneys is still only at about 16%, Black plaintiffs attorneys are making another push to increase diversity in this arena.

A group of six Black plaintiffs attorneys including Ben Crump—who made national headlines representing George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s families—and DiCello Levitt Gutzler Birmingham office managing partner Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann recently co-founded “Shades of Mass” with the mission to increase MDL diversity. The goal is to help inform attorneys of color about evolving mass torts, how to get involved and to educate less experienced lawyers, who may so far have been on the periphery of the MDL world. Other board members of the group include former American Association for Justice president and Beasley Allen principal Navan Ward, Gregory Cade, LaRuby Z. May and Larry Taylor.