Shari Dunn, attorney, educator, and author of Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work (HarperCollins Business, 2025), will appear at The Black Counsel Forum on 25–26 September 2025, as part of her UK book tour. The Forum brings together Black legal professionals to explore equity, merit, and recognition in law and beyond.
Shari Dunn’s career spans law, journalism, consulting, and education. She leads ITBOM Consulting, advising organisations on systems change for equity, and her writing has appeared in TIME, Fast Company, and Fortune. She has also provided expert commentary for Bloomberg Radio, Forbes, NBC, and PBS.
Her book, Qualified, has been hailed as groundbreaking, earning recognition as a Top Ten Spring Pick by Publishers Weekly, a feature in Elle Magazine’s Black History Month reading list, and most recently, shortlisting for the SABEW 2025 Best in Business Book Awards. Central to the book is Dunn’s original theory of “competency checking,” a term she developed to name and analyse the persistent bias that unfairly undermines Black professionals and obstructs advancement.
Speaking on the book’s global relevance, Dunn said:
“We are at a pivotal moment worldwide regarding how people see and understand Black people and their place in the workplace. This book is designed to demystify false assumptions and stereotypical ideas around people of color and women in the workplace, while offering practical solutions for moving forward. There is particular relevance for the UK, where data shows similar barriers to advancement. Qualified can illuminate what is happening in the US around DEI, as well as provide support for the UK to continue building a robust, diverse and inclusive workforce.”
Her participation in the Black Counsel Forum underscores the book’s impact on legal professionals, offering tools to challenge the structural biases Black lawyers face in progression and recognition.
This appearance forms part of Shari Dunn’s UK book tour, which also includes The British Library (29 September) and The Africa Centre (1 October), cementing her as one of the most compelling speakers of Black History Month.
