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Editor's Note: The following piece by Arielle B. Adler was originally published in the May 2019 Edition of the Diversity Committee Newsletter. To read the entire issue, and to learn more about the New Jersey State Bar Association's Diversity initiatives, click here.

Last month, Arielle B. Adler spoke with Shawn M. LaTourette about the environment, community, promoting diversity and inclusion beyond our own experiences, parenthood, and challenging social constructs that impede our ability to integrate work and family. Among the many hats he wears-not least of which is superstar father to his twins-Shawn currently serves as deputy commissioner for legal and regulatory affairs at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the 2019-2020 chair of the LGBT Rights Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Q: Please tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you and the law find each other?
A: It was all happenstance. I grew up in a working, poor family where higher education was not something we discussed or planned for; neither of my parents or any of their siblings had college degrees. My dad was the superintendent of the apartment building we lived in, and my mom was a retail cashier. I learned the value of hard work from them and ended up at a vocational high school that I thought made sense at the time. When I was 16, I was placed in a job at a small law firm. I got graduation credits through my job as a file and data entry clerk. That job changed my life. It transported me to a bigger world l did not even know existed. For the first time, l understood possibility. During high school and for some time after, I worked for lawyers, serving as a file clerk, receptionist, secretary, and ultimately, paralegal. If that first job introduced me to possibility, my last paralegal job introduced me to passion. In 2000, I met two lawyers who had just started their own environmental law practice. They became my mentors and inspiration. They brought one of the first lawsuits in New Jersey to help communities whose drinking water had been contaminated with a chemical (methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE) that leaked out of tanks beneath gas stations. As a sort of community organizer, I would corral and work with residents, learning their stories, their hardships, and helping to keep them connected to the lawyers who were fighting for them in court. It was an incredible experience, and it changed the trajectory of my career. My life, really.

Energized by that work, I decided to put myself through college at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, at night while still working as a paralegal. l then set my sights on law school. And here we are.

Q: You are currently deputy commissioner for legal and regulatory affairs at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (N]DEP), where you serve as chief counsel to the commissioner. Can you please tell us a little about your role and responsibilities as chief counsel?
A: During my time in law school and then practice, I thought often about pursuing a career in environmental policy. After Governor Phil Murphy was elected, I had the chance to meet his choice to lead the NJDEP, Catherine McCabe-a storied environmental lawyer in her own right. Commissioner McCabe gave me the chance to help shape and guide legal and regulatory policy at the agency. l serve as the commissioner's chief advisor and lead several teams that support the NJDEP's and the governor's environmental priorities. For example, I provide leadership for the NJDEP's priority affirmative litigation program, which includes efforts to recover damages for injuries to natural resources and promote environmental justice through targeted enforcement. These are joint efforts with the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (the AG's Office), who litigates these matters. The NJDEP is the client and I am sort of like the in-house counsel, if we are comparing it to the private sector. My office also provides legal policy guidance to the various programs that make up the NJDEP: Site Remediation (the folks who ensure cleanup of polluted property); Water Resources (the folks who ensure safe drinking water); Land Use Management (the folks who make sure development is properly permitted); Air Quality (the folks who ensure our air gets cleaner); Compliance and Enforcement (the folks who ensure environmental law is followed); Engineering(the folks who rebuild dunes and replenish beaches); and Natural and Historic Resources (the folks who manage all of our state lands and cultural sites). It is a tall order, and my relatively small office coordinates with the AG's Office where legal representation is needed.

Q: Before that, you were in private practice as a partner at the law firm of Gibbons P.C. in the environmental law department. Do you have any advice you'd like to impart to the more junior lawyers striving to succeed in the often challenging law firm environment?
A: Work hard, but know what you're working for. It is all too easy to get caught up in the demands of lawyering, regardless of firm size or practice area. I think it is important to be able to step back from the workload and reflect on where you want your work Lo take you. At Gibbons, we had a terrific leadership program where we shared ideas with our colleagues about short- and long-term plans-what we wanted our practice to look like in two, five, 10 years-and how we might get there. I would encourage junior lawyers to find a sounding board, consistently revisit what they want their careers to look like, and work their plan. And don't be afraid of reworking it again and again as you discover new professional interests. That is one of the best things about law, if you ask me. The skills we develop are so transferrab1e. You can do just about anything. Remind yourself of that.

Q: You began your legal career as a law clerk in the environmental law practice group in the AG's Office. I doubt many lawyers can claim to have such a substantively consistent career. What is it about environmental law that keeps you engaged and excited?
A: I want to have an impact on the world around me. And that can mean a lot of different things. Some people hear 'environmental lawyer' and think 'tree hugger.' Or, my favorite reaction when l introduce myself as an environmental lawyer: "Do you work for the good guys or the bad guys?" Nothing is that simple, of course. I have had the chance to fight for clients stricken with cancer from exposure to toxins, to help companies manage environmental liabilities in business transactions, to litigate big fights between parties at odds over who has to clean up a contaminated site, and to help developers take abandoned dirty property and bring entire communities back to life with new economic development. And now I have the honor of helping to shape how our state agency charged with protecting the environment carries out that mission. It's pretty cool to look out at an infrastructure project, a public park, or a buzzing commercial center where an old dump site once was and be able to say, "I got to play a little part in helping that happen."

Q: You are also very active in the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA). For example, you are a member and officer of the LGBT Rights Section of the state bar association. How and when did you become involved in the LGBT Rights Section?
A: After I came out as a gay man-which was a few years into my legal practice-I was eager to find community. I reached out to some law school colleagues who I knew were involved in the section, did the whole 'corning out' thing (which is never really done, by the way), and asked if there was anything I could do to help or otherwise get engaged. Everyone in the section was incredibly welcoming. I did not-and still -don't practice the types of law the majority of our section members practice. So many folks in our section work directly with the LGBTQ community in family law, employment law, or other areas. I learn so much from them. Much like my environmental law mentors opened my eyes to a new world, the section members here have helped me to broaden my view-to grow. I am so grateful for that.

Q: Promoting diversity and inclusion is just as important within diverse communities as it is on a more institutional and societal level. For example, members of the LGBTQ community are not only diverse within the larger population, but also among each other. How does the LGBT Rights Section, as an organization that seeks to be a resource and vehicle for LGBTQ attorneys and allies to better serve their communities, promote diversity and inclusion within its membership?
A: l am going to be honest about this: Diversity and inclusion is hard work. T think it starts with self-reflection. Who makes up our personal networks? Are they folks that largely look, think, work, play, and live like us? If so, then what are we doing to broaden those networks? And if not, what are we doing to help the other people and organizations we engage with be more inclusive? Within the section, our Diversity Working Group is not shy about asking those hard questions. You have to be willing to get uncomfortable if you want to change and facilitate change among others. But we still have a whole lot of work to do-both in the section and in the state bar association overall. We have to create spaces where diverse people feel comfortable bringing their full authentic experience. As a diverse group itself, we cannot forget to pay close attention to the need for within-group diversity.

Q: You are the 2019-2020 chair of the LGBT Rights Section. As Peter Parker's 'Uncle Ben' Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility." Do you have any particular goals or initiatives that you'd like to accomplish or put in motion this year?
A: Speaking of diversity, something that I would like to place some emphasis on is expanding our active membership to include greater diversity of practice areas. I would like to promote the section as a gathering place not just for attorneys who serve LGBTQ clients, but for LGBTQ attorneys in any area of practice looking for community among their peers. I would also like to see our section membership make concerted efforts to mentor LGBTQ youth, such as by creating partnerships with schools and youth organizations.

Q: You are also a member of the Diversity Committee of the NJSBA. Please tell us a little about what the role of the Diversity Committee is and your participation in it.
A: The state bar association's Diversity Committee works with the entire bar community to ensure that diversity-including racial, ethnic, religious, gender, sexual orientation and others-is respected and valued as an organizational imperative. The Diversity Committee works hard to encourage bar leadership and members to think critically about the contributions of diverse voices within our profession, and to increase diverse representation within our law firm s, the Judiciary, and the legal community at large. The Diversity Committee provides educational opportunities, trainings, and other forums for examining diversity and inclusion principles. And I've been honored to get to participate as one of the programming co-chairs to put together outstanding events like our annual Diversity Summit. The greatest value of the Diversity Committee, in my view, is the thoughtful challenge it presents to the rest of the legal community: Let's each develop the courage to step outside our respective bubbles and think hard about how to bring others in-those who do not necessarily look, love, work or practice law just like us. I believe that integrating diverse voices can make us better lawyers and more well rounded people.

Q: The NJSBA, in partnership with the New Jersey lnstitute of Continuing Legal Education (N]lCLE), puts on a wide variety of CLE programming through its sections and committees. You are a frequent speaker in these programs, both on your subject matter expertise of environmental law and on diversity topics. Do you have a favorite or most memorable program that you've participated in as a speaker or moderator?
A: My favorite program was one at the 2018 NJSBA Annual Meeting and Convention last year titled "Is it Because I'm _____ ", which was co-sponsored by the Diversity Committee. Each panelist began with a personal anecdote where they explained a time they experienced discrimination and were left wondering, "Is it because I am _____ ?" The panelists were all members of diverse groups and shared a range of experiences, some involving apparent micro aggressions seeded in implicit bias and others involving more explicit and flagrant discriminatory comments and actions.

Q: I was fortunate enough to attend that program, and I was very moved by the insightful, personal, and honest sentiments you and your fellow panelists shared. You spoke about being a gay, cis, white man and a single father in the legal profession. Could you please share a little about that?
A: It was my experience as a young lawyer in large law firms that there was a bit of a double standard around work/life balance, and the demands of parenting and family life in particular. Many of the firms I interviewed with as a law student and worked for as a young lawyer touted the success of their work/life balance programs of reduced billable hours and flexible work time, and specifically these programs' benefit to the female lawyers at those firms. The message, which was an important and overdue one, was that accommodation is available to mothers and women with family obligations. Surely that message applied to any lawyer with caregiving obligations, regardless of gender. However, when I became a father and explored the idea of a reduced billable hour accommodation, l was all but told that taking on less work would kill my career. (And we're talking about 75 percent of what was about a 2,500 billable hour year for me, so still more than full time.) I suspect this to be the same experience for many women who seek to balance work and family, where promises of flexibility are advertised for purposes of talent acquisition but leave much to be desired in practice. I have real trouble with this. I believe that it is incumbent upon each of us as professionals to establish good boundaries and carry the expectation that we will be able to integrate our work and personal/family lives. I found that difficult at first, with the drive to succeed conflicting with my desire to be a constant and present force in my children's lives. I recall one day, packing up to run to pick up my twins from after care, an associate looked at his watch-"Half day?" he asked me. That is one of the many things that is wrong with how we set our expectations around work and family, and no less so for men. While the profession increasingly seems to be responding to the idea and practical realities of working mothers, there is no corollary expectation that fathers, too, should be present in their children's lives. Perhaps that is cultural, with this still male-dominated industry beholden to the longstanding social construct that women, not men, are the caregivers. My hope is that as our profession diversifies, we build support structures for our fellow lawyers that are not so reliant on the gender binary. At that program you attended, "Is it Because I'm _____ ," I talked about standing up for fatherhood, for parenthood, for caregivers-for the idea that we should be proud of our commitments outside of the law, and that we should expect to be supported in balancing them with our demanding work. l tried hard to create that space and establish boundaries that, eventually, my colleagues really came to respect. It should not have felt so hard to do that. Being a present father did not make me less productive; the balancing act made me agile and efficient, and I sure still billed those hours. I have since told every expectant father I practice law with to take paternal leave and to expect their time with their kids to be respected by their colleagues and clients. We can change the dynamic and turn those tired social constructs on their heads. But we have to do it together.

Q: Being a lawyer is hard, and being a parent and a lawyer is even harder. Being a single parent and a lawyer I'm sure is exponentially harder. How has the experience of being a single parent influenced your lawyering, if it has?
A: Like so many other aspects of my experience, I think the balancing act has given me greater perspective-perspective on time, perspective on the relative importance of things. It has been challenging at times for sure. But I have been lucky to have developed a great support system and worked hard to create a professional space where l can grow as both a lawyer and a parent at the same time. Fatherhood has made me a stronger lawyer because it has made me a better person. It has made me want to choose paths that my twins could be proud of They now say, "Daddy works for the environment!" with a real spring in their step. That's pretty cool.

Q: As a member of the LGBT Rights Section and the LGBTQ community and allies, I've had the privilege of meeting amazing people who do the work of advancing LGBTQ rights every day. As you mentioned, many members of the LGBT Rights Section work with LGBTQ families and individuals as part of their practice. Others work in practice areas that may or may not affect LGBTQ people in as identifiable a way, but they participate in LGBTQ advocacy, education and outreach outside of their 'day jobs.' In my mind, the word 'advocate' could rightly apply to people in both groups; however, I suspect that whether someone considers oneself an advocate can be a very difficult and deeply personal question. What does it mean to be an advocate for the LGBTQ community, and do you consider yourself to be one?
A: Without question. And I sort of think about advocacy the way I think about parenting. lt's something that you demonstrate in ways big and small, sometimes so small that you may not even realize it. When you are passionate about something- the way I am passionate about my kids and this community-it is with you always. So for me, being an advocate is about standing up, being visible, and being present for people in diverse communities, whether or not you share the exact same circumstances that make you diverse. The LGBTQ community is really every community. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, non-binary and questioning people come from every walk of life, every ethnic and racial group, every religion, everywhere. I am an advocate every time I introduce myself as a gay man, because being visible coming out and living out-breaks the silence in which fear and ignorance take root. I am an advocate when I share facts in conversation with others about HIV, dispelling myths about the disease. I am an advocate every time I sign up to walk, donate, or celebrate a cause or organization that aims to make life better for people in this community. l am an advocate every time I teach my kids to show loving kindness to people different from them. And I am proud to have helped create two little advocates who, just the other day in response to my pointing out two adorable twin boys in the grocery store, told me "Daddy, it's rude to assume someone's gender." The future sure looks bright. •

Arielle B. Adler is an associate with Lowenstein Sandler LLP, where her practice focuses on corporate bankruptcy and creditors' rights matters, including bankruptcy- related litigation. Adler is the 2019-2020 chair-elect of the LGBT Rights Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association and an active member of the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC).