In addition to emphasizing the importance of diversity in their internal operations and through their external lawyer engagement and billing practices, in-house legal departments can partner with third parties to support the diversification of the legal profession. These third parties include: Advocacy is generally perceived to lag behind other professions and industries in the field of diversity and inclusion (D&I). While there are many notable exceptions, women and minorities are often under-represented in law firms and in-house legal services, particularly in senior management positions. They also often receive lower compensation than non-diversified lawyers and are excluded or overlooked by other important roles, opportunities and benefits of law firms and law firms. Kellye Gordon, vice president of ethics and compliance and legal operations at VF Corp. in Denver, also participated in the panel and discussed how their company benefits from the model diversity survey. She stressed that she and other business leaders were impressed by the Advocate General`s commitment across the country to advancing Resolution 113 and realized that they wanted to be counted among them. Winterfeldt, whose InterLaw Diversity Forum seeks to promote meritocracy and inclusion for various groups in the legal sector, heard Bellamy about the model diversity survey and decided he wanted to launch a similar inquiry in the UK. The legal departments of organizations that have implemented D&I initiatives can support these initiatives by seeking a greater diversity of law firms. In May 2019, these General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers joined the Diversity Lab and published a document entitled Strategies and Tactics for In-House Legal Services to Improve the Diversity of External Lawyers. This document contains specific steps that legal departments can take to improve diversity in their law firms, including: Last spring, the ABA released its second survey on the diversity of ABA models, conducted by the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, showing that large law firms have hired more Hispanic staff, black and Asian in 2020 than in 2019. More than 100,000 lawyers and more than 287 law firms across the country were included in the survey, which measured corporate demographics, hiring, promotions, compensation, retention and diversity initiatives.
While most lawyers are passionate about diversity, justice and inclusion, they are still grappling with tangible actions and results in this area, Daniel Winterfeldt said at an ABA techshow panel titled “Using and Maximizing Technology and Data to Promote Diversity, Justice and Inclusion in Advocacy” on Monday afternoon. The Diversity of Models Survey is the most important instrument for the implementation of Resolution 113. The purpose of the survey is to serve as a standard for law firms to report on their diversity measures. The advantages of the survey are data consistency, time efficiency and year-to-year trend in aggregate form and for individual firms. The General Counsel for Policy should also develop, implement and monitor the policies, practices and procedures of external consultants in order to identify and engage qualified law firms that support the department`s D&I objectives. In-house legal departments send hundreds of millions of dollars of cases to external law firms each year. General Counsel can have a significant impact on improving the diversification of the legal profession by sending or otherwise recognizing cases to law firms that support, practice and demonstrate success, and withdraw or refuse to send cases to law firms that do not prioritize diversity. Based on our experience, we believe that as diversity increases, improvements in decision-making, creativity, innovation and customer loyalty follow. Like many corporate legal departments, Microsoft`s legal, field and field affairs team sees our external consultant as a partner and an extension of our own legal team. Therefore, the business logic that drives us to diversify our entire workforce applies to our law firms. At Microsoft, we work closely with our law firms to promote greater diversity and inclusion. Our Law Firm Diversity Program (LFDP) and our work with women- and minority-owned law firms – or WMBE firms – have helped increase the diversity of our own legal team and promote diversity within the firms that support our business.
While these programs are a step in the right direction, we recognize that we need to do more. A legal department that runs a diversity program for law firms must identify qualified companies. A recent study found that more than 85% of the law firms surveyed have diversity committees, which include senior partners, and more than 30% employ a dedicated diversity professional. However, the fact that a law firm devotes resources to its diversity program does not guarantee that its D&I efforts will be successful. A legal department must exercise due diligence to determine the effectiveness of corporate diversity programs. The legal service must also identify minority law firms and confirm their qualifications before retaining them. However, statistics show that the legal profession still has a lot of work to do. We have yet to see any gains in diversity at the executive level of most U.S. law firms. In 2015, only 7% of the equity partners were minorities[1] and only 17% of the partners were women[2]. These numbers do not reflect the growing number of different graduates who have been coming from our law schools for more than a decade.
[3] That`s why Microsoft has joined legal departments and law firms across the country in supporting The American Bar Association `ABA) Resolution 113 and its mission to create a legal profession that better reflects the diversity of the nation we serve. The two main types of law firm diversity are: (1) majority law firms that employ lawyers with different characteristics and backgrounds, and (2) minority-owned law firms, including various individual practitioners. Majority-owned law firms are firms that are largely owned, run and managed by white men. Diversity in majority-managed companies is reflected in the employment, status and roles of lawyers from various backgrounds, such as: The Model Diversity Survey is a product of Resolution 113, which was adopted by the ABA in August 2016. It calls on legal service providers to expand and create opportunities for different lawyers, and urges buyers of legal services to direct a greater percentage of their legal fees to different lawyers.