Josh Stevens, a partner at Mac Murray & Shuster LLP, reflects on his experiences as an openly gay attorney, as well as initiatives companies and communities can take to support the LGBTQIA+ community.
Josh Stevens, a partner at Mac Murray & Shuster LLP, reflects on his experiences as an openly gay attorney, as well as initiatives companies and communities can take to support the LGBTQIA+ community.07/15/2022 10:00 A.M.
9 minute read
ACA International’s membership and the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry are increasingly diverse. ACA is highlighting these member voices, including Josh Stevens, a partner at Mac Murray & Shuster LLP, who reflects on his experiences as an openly gay attorney, as well as initiatives companies and communities can take to support the LGBTQIA+ community.
ACA also recently highlighted members during Pride Month, which is recognized in June each year to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, according to the Library of Congress.
Stevens, who has been at the Mac Murray & Shuster for over six years, has paved the way for others in the LGBTQIA+ community and helped found the first LGBT Interest Committee for his local bar association in the early stages of his legal career.
Here, Stevens shares his thoughts on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives his company partakes in and efforts that can be done to create a more accepting and inclusive workplace environment, starting from the ground up.
Q. How did you get started in the ARM industry?
A. What’s kind of interesting is I did not come into this industry through the collections angle. I went to law school and originally wanted to do human rights law. That quickly faded away because I found a real interest in compliance work in my legal practice. I started with a larger law firm in commercial finance, and then leveraged that into an in-house position with a money transmission company after which I joined my current firm.
That’s when I started to get more exposure to third-party collections and to the ARM industry more broadly, partly due to some relationships of some of the other partners in the firm, but then also because of my compliance background. Most of my work these days is focused on privacy, data security and Telephone Consumer Protection Act components that can affect businesses, including in the ARM industry.
Q. Can you talk about your experiences working as a gay attorney in your profession?
A. I grew up in southeastern Kentucky, rural America—a very conservative area. As you can imagine, that comes with certain risks to being out. I came out in high school and was one of very few people. This was also right around the time that all the marriage bans were coming into place in the 2004 election. Being out was not something that was done lightly.
I have always been an advocate for people who want to come out, supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. I was very active in my undergraduate studies in that capacity with the organization on campus as well as in law school.
When I was first going through the interview process for positions as a law student, that was when I first ran into some significant push back from more senior members of the legal community, advising me to hide who I was in order to help my prospects of getting a job. Sometimes I got push back even from people I was interviewing with—this kind of overt homophobia.
I made the choice that, for me, it was important to be who I was, even if that meant job prospects weren’t quite as available.
The firm I joined thankfully was one where I was able to be open and out. But at the time I joined, another associate and I were the only two out associates in this firm of several hundred lawyers. We really pushed the firm to get engaged with the national LGBTQ+ Bar Association and to go to Lavender Law, which is their big conference, to recruit students to join the firm.
When I joined that firm, sexual orientation and gender identity were not covered in the firm’s anti-discrimination policy. And one of the other glaring things that was missing was there was no group for LGBT attorneys in the local bar association. I also worked in conjunction with a couple other attorneys and with great support from the staff at the Cincinnati Bar Association to establish the LGBTQ+ Interest Committee in the organization and to provide that network and resource for other LGBTQ+ attorneys in the area.
After that, I think there was a big shift in the legal world and in our culture at large to be more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, and that shift has been fairly dramatic.
Now, when you look at polling, a majority of Americans—by a decent margin—support gay marriage. And I think that’s partly due to organizations and groups that have embraced DEI, creating an environment that says diversity has value and LGBTQ+ diversity voices are heard.
Q. What is an issue the LGBTQIA+ community is facing that many people might not know about?
A. I think a lot of people thought that once gay marriage was legalized that we’d solved all the problems. But that’s really not true.
For example, in many states, it’s still legal to discriminate against someone seeking housing, based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It wasn’t until the recent Supreme Court case that held that discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation violates federal law that discrimination in employment fell off. But even then, you can still run into situations where that may not apply.
I think the other piece that a lot of people are missing is youth. When we see proposals like some of the bills that passed in certain states around youth sports regarding transgender athletes or gender-inclusive bathrooms, they are creating an environment where young people feel ostracized, and they don’t feel safe. And that’s one of the reasons that we see such high depression, anxiety and suicide rates amongst LGBTQIA and especially transgender youth.
We need to never forget the youth because those experiences that they go through can have a profound effect on their life. And if they feel unsafe, if they feel threatened, they’re not going to do as well in school. Their future prospects are not going to be what they otherwise could be, and frankly, their lives can be in danger.
I’d like people to keep in mind that they can volunteer with organizations that help kids and they can donate to causes that help support LGBTQ+ youth. You can be a counter to some of those voices that are aggressively making kids feel unsafe.
Q. Can you speak to the DEI efforts at Mac Murray & Shuster?
A. We had a really fun Pride get-together in June. We brought in a DEI speaker, who spoke on ways to support LGBTQ+ youth. We had food, LGBTQ+ trivia and swag bags, with items purchased from local LGBTQ+ vendors. It was fun, but it was also educational. People really liked the pairing of the educational speaker with the fun event. But that’s just one of a number of things that we’ve been doing.
Last year, we hired a DEI consulting firm who came in and did monthly trainings for everyone in the firm. We also made a major update to our dress code policy.
This year, we’ve been rolling out some changes to our parental leave policy to make it more equitable.
Marissa Mitchell is chairing our DEI committee and is doing a fabulous job with it. One of the things we’re looking for here in the second half of the year is how we change our recruitment strategies. How do we attract diverse talent and keep that diverse talent? So we’re going through a research exercise right now, trying to learn best practices for that. It’s a never-ending process but having the commitment to do it and the investment to do it is what’s so important.
Q. How can companies create more inclusive environments for diverse employees, during Pride Month and beyond?
A. Visible support in the form of a Pride flag, a changed logo or a post on Instagram is great—I’m never going to discount those things. But it’s important to take the outward appearance of embracing diversity and actually flow it through the businesses policies and procedures.
For example, take a critical look at leave policies and make sure that they are inclusive of people who may adopt or foster in addition to just having a child through pregnancy.
Find ways to make sure your company uses inclusive language, respecting people’s pronouns and preferred names. Make sure your dress code is inclusive to people’s different gender expressions.
It’s about taking the visible goal and actually putting it into practice. For example, making sure that your health insurance can cover a non-traditional family structure. That’s something that a lot of companies miss.
It’s about sitting down and looking through things with the lens of someone in this diverse population. Ask yourself, how would these policies impact me differently? What adjustments should we make to these policies to make sure that everyone is being treated in an equitable way?
Q. What does it mean to embrace LGBTQIA+ pride?
A. June is a time for reflection and celebration. We have to use this month as an opportunity to look back on everyone who has gone before to lay the groundwork for where we are today. To honor that legacy, to celebrate the diversity and the richness of the community and do that in an inclusive way.
For a long time, Pride has been somewhat exclusive. People of color and people in the trans community, I think, have often gotten looked over during Pride and that does seem to be changing.
Pride is about celebrating in a very inclusive way, but then also using it as a call to action to say, “Okay, not only during this month, but in all months.” Think: What can I do to affect change? Whether that’s helping a single person in a way that improves their life or getting involved with an organization to try to impact legislation or something at a large scale. Everybody can do something.
And so that’s what I try to do during Pride Month—evaluate where we are. How do we celebrate everybody that’s in this community? And what can I do going forward? I would encourage everybody to have that mindset.
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A. I just appreciate that ACA is really trying to put the focus on these months and highlight members and causes that are important investments. I hope that you continue to do that and during other months, too.
Do you know a member you would like to see featured in ACA Daily’s Member Spotlight or Collector magazine’s Origin Story? Would you like to share your story? We are also looking to highlight our international members and new members of ACA. Reach out to our communications team at [email protected] with your ideas. We’d love to hear from you!
If you have executive leadership updates or other member news to share with ACA, contact our communications department at [email protected]. View our publications page for more information and our news submission guidelines here.
