How Effective Recruiting and Retention Practices Can Promote Diversity in Your Corporate Legal Department Why Is Diversity Important?

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1 Your Corporate Legal Department Why Is Diversity Important? By Martha Fay Africa W ell, for many reasons. The world, as we in business thought we knew it, has changed. Our clients and customers have changed. Just look at this. Fifty-one percent of the United States adult population is female; thirty-two percent of the US population is Caucasian; thirty percent of the total US population is minority, and this percentage is increasing faster than the other two. So if you are white and male, most of your potential consumer market doesn't look like you, may not act like you, and may not share your worldview. Corporate America is comprised of very smart people like you who are driven by one goal: increasing their market share and its profit margin. To do so, they have to understand how their potential customers and clients think. To do so, they can no longer be monolithically white and male. Corporate America gets it, but the legal profession does not. Beginning in the early 1970's, the elite law schools of America began to get it as well. That is when they began admitting substantial numbers of women and minorities. So the pipeline for diversity from the Harvards, Yales, Boalts, and Michigans of the world is now thirty years old. Some fine schools consistently admit classes that are close to fifty percent female and thirty percent minority and have been doing so for years; in fact, the number of well qualified women applying to law school continues to significantly outpace the number of applications from white males. And the number of minority students interested in legal education has remained strong, particularly at the elite schools that vie for the cream of the crop from the elite undergraduate institutions in the United States. Of all the professional categories including business, medicine, engineering, and science, the legal profession has educated significantly more women and minorities than the rest for the past thirty years. That means there are plenty of well-educated and trained women and minority attorneys in the pipeline of corporate legal America and, by now, after thirty years in the pipeline one would presume they would be in positions of power, right? WRONG. Why Then Does The Legal Profession Look Like This? Sixty-two percent of all practicing lawyers are white males. Eighty-seven percent of all partners in the nation's 250 largest law firms are white males. Sixty-one percent of all law school faculty members are white males. Of all Fortune 500 General Counsel: 87% are white male 10% are female ONLY 3% are minority A few more numbers will help round out the picture. The 1999 Minority Corporate Counsel Annual Survey on Diversity of Fortune 500 Companies provides a further demographic break-down of the composition of inhousecounsel. The number in parentheses represents the group's 1999 percentage in the US population. 87.1% of in-house counsel are Caucasian males and females. 7.9% are African-American; (12.7%) 2.6% are Asian; (2.9%) 2.4% are Hispanic/Latino; (11.7%). Originally published in Law Practice Management April 2001 issue

2 To be sure, corporate America is beginning to get it and each year the "diversity" statistics look a little better than the year before. That is probably because each year more effort is being made internally by corporate America to insure that those statistics look better. This article will help you understand how to improve your statistics and more importantly, to help you retain and grow the human legal capital that wants, quite frankly, more than you can imagine, to work for and with you. First, let's look at diversity because the categories above capture only a few of the recognized categories. After all, the point of inclusiveness is to leave no one behind. What Is Diversity And How Can You Get There? Most of us try to organize information into simple categories just to maintain our feelings of mastery and control in an increasingly complex world. While that tendency is to be applauded under most circumstances, when one is talking about human beings, it tends to reduce them to a label or category. Most of us resist being labeled, and for good reason. Labels define our limits; they contain us. Most diversity experts say that those who are committed to the general principles of building a diverse work team must start with the premise that they acknowledge and accept those with different backgrounds inclusively, without judgment, presumptions, or limits. And that means without a label because labels limit and contain. That being said, broadly speaking, here are some of the categories embraced within diversity circles: Ethnic Racial Thinking styles Religious beliefs Communication styles Educational backgrounds Parental status Sexual orientation Disability status Chronological age Veteran or military service status. Each legal department and the larger organization it serves needs to decide what diversity represents to them and how to achieve it. It needs to set short (1-5 years) and long term (6-10 years) goals and it needs to build accountability into the execution of those goals. It also needs to develop meaningful career tracks. All of this takes time and effort away from day to day business pursuits. These goals are often driven by the CEO. In fact, if the CEO is not pushing the initiative, studies have shown that it is less likely to succeed. A goal cannot be met until it is clearly defined. A lawyer who has the skill set to help the legal department achieve their goals will not be recognized as having the capacity to do so unless their role has been defined and the organization has identified potential barriers to that new lawyer's success and removed them so that the lawyer can compete on a level playing ground. Ultimately, it is the job of the CEO to insure that all employees are leveraged and their unique backgrounds and experience are harnessed to meet the needs of customers and to achieve business goals. Every Effort Starts With A Plan The Minority Corporate Counsel Association's website is excellent. It describes Ten Best Practices gleaned from 16 Fortune 500 companies judged to have been most successful in achieving the business goals of a diverse legal workforce. They describe three Pathway concepts that form a continuum on the road to diversity. The threshold concept is that of simple compliance with diversity goals; in this situation, lawyers are brought into an organization in a sink or swim fashion. In our experience, many corporations think they have achieved their goal simply by hiring a lawyer of color and checking a box. Not so. The second level of the continuum is one in which the culture is sufficiently diverse to demonstrate an appreciation for difference and to value it; simply put, in that evolved a culture your experience of reality need not be denied simply because it differs from mine. The third level is inclusive; an environment has been created in which people are growing, their professional needs and those of the company are in alignment, and they want to stay. And because the culture meets their professional needs and sometimes their personal and social needs, they do. Your Corporate Legal Department: Page 2

3 How Does A Company Get There? Usually By Use Of Carrots And Sticks The MCCA's Ten Best Practices, referred to above, look like this (with occasional editorial comments from me): 1. The general counsel and attorneys in the legal department have a percentage of their compensation tied directly to efforts (why not to results?) to increase diversity in the law department. 2. Diversity is defined by the law department broadly to include minorities, women, and lawyers who are different in cultural background and lifestyle. 3. Informal and sometimes formal mentoring and diversity training programs are implemented within the department. 4. Executive search firms that conduct searches for new positions in the legal department must provide a diverse slate of candidates. In-house legal departments frequently use legal search firms when trying to meet diversity goals; just make sure that the search firm's track record is extensive in this area, that they provide data demonstrating successfully completed diversity searches, and ask for references from successfully placed minority candidates and clients who requested these efforts. A search firm's credibility and reputation in the area of diversity searches can make or break your search. You are known by the company you keep. 5. The legal department has a diversity plan, preferably tied to certain skill sets that are underrepresented in the legal department, and a diversity committee to oversee the implementation of the plan. The plan will need to be clearly tied to business objectives. A. Scope and responsibilities of the diversity committee: Identify all barriers to diversity within the department Assess the impact of management practices on current diversity efforts Develop clear statements of the steps that will be taken to increase diversity within the department Develop "metrics" to evaluate the effectiveness of the diversity program. B. Goals of the diversity plan should include: Improving communication between different groups in the department (for instance between the administrative staff and the attorneys) Improving percentage of women and minorities throughout the department Maintaining or increasing utilization of minority owned law firms Reducing attrition rates within the department, especially for diverse employees. 6. The general counsel must demonstrate commitment to diversity by: Requiring each direct report to provide quarterly updates on the status of diversity efforts Rewarding innovative approaches to diversity through awards 7. The law department's diversity efforts are compared and ranked with diversity efforts from all business units in the company. 8. Meetings are held for particular groups (e.g., all women in-house and outside women counsel that represent the company). 9. The amount of business sent to minority owned law firms is reported quarterly to the general counsel or designated direct reports. 10. Participation of minority lawyers in minority bar association events is encouraged and financially supported; the more well known your company's efforts are within minority bars, the more likely you are to receive resumes. This effort is good for your business profile and it is great for recruiting. Engaging in these efforts will create a more cohesive and more welcoming atmosphere for everyone, regardless of "category". Tying the accomplishment of diversity objectives to compensation, public acknowledgement, competition Your Corporate Legal Department: Page 3

4 those involved in the effort. After you have worked through the Ten Best Practices and put them in place, you are ready to recruit and hire. Use all resources at your command (print ads, web, networking) or contact a reputable legal head-hunter. "Breeding" For Retention Breeds Success Imagine how boring the world would be if every person looked identical to each other. Imagine how predictable the responses would be to problems that arose, to ideas, to opportunity. Let's face it. Diversity and inclusiveness are buzzwords. Realizing the substance of those buzzwords can foster long-term success in human and in corporate terms. In breeding can give rise to mentally or physically defective people, but the consequences of inbreeding in corporations, i.e. hiring "P.L.U.'s" (people like us) are usually not as dire. They are not desirable either. When you breed and select for diversity, you can also breed and select for success if you follow the MCCA Ten Best Practices. Watch The Women Here's another benchmark you can look for. Organizations in which women have succeeded are usually "safe" for minorities. Look around your corporation and spot the successful women. Chances are they exhibit many of the characteristics noted below, even if they don't exhibit them in the way the white male lawyer out of central casting does (think Tom Cruise). Apart from a solid academic record, sound and relevant legal training, and a demonstrated interest in your corporation, what other characteristics should you look for? The goal is to recognize characteristics that will auger for success in your corporation. Here are some: Leadership: demonstrated track records, even if as far back as college Demonstrated success in simultaneously managing people and complex projects Demonstrated ability to handle pressure, long hours, rapid shifts in circumstances Creativity: demonstrated ability to think outside the box, see the big picture, and then to implement Relationship builder: a lawyer with excellent people skills and judgment in people Ability to discover common ground, even with an adversary, and ability to build on it Maturity of judgment coupled with solid experience Can articulate future goals and describe the path toward their execution Projects confidence, competence, and integrity Ability to gain broad based confidence within the company Thinks and acts like a business lawyer, sees risk, controls for it, and figures out how to accomplish the company's business objectives; few business situations worth exploring are risk free Demonstrated substantive experience in more than one area of the law Understands the difference between leadership and management and can deliver both in an effective and efficient manner Has a sense of humor, the humility to recognize and learn from past mistakes, and the courage to move on from them. Few lawyers demonstrate these characteristics in equal measure; most have spikes of strength and competence. Some of these characteristics can be groomed for, or mentored into a lawyer who wants to succeed and will do what is necessary to do so. Some lawyers have had challenging upbringings and are unusually resilient as a result; they've seen the worst and what your company might dish up is just another obstacle to be overcome. It might bend them, but it won't break them. Selecting for retention begins with the first interview; grooming for retention begins on the lawyer's first day at work. Hiring the best gets you and them fifty percent of the way. Retaining the best is a greater challenge. Your reward is the CEO's recognition that you have created bench strength that is versatile in skill set, attitude, appearance, style and approach. That is what diversity can accomplish. That is why you will win recognition and respect if you are successful in breeding for success. Given the thirty year history of admitting diverse law school classes, the pool is there and eager to make you look good. Remember, America loves a winner! Your Corporate Legal Department: Page 4

5 Martha Fay Africa Formerly a placement director at Boalt Hall School of Law, Martha Fay Africa (Marty) occasionally thinks that her job has not changed much since leaving academia. Helping a client or a candidate get from point A to point B is still at the heart of what she does and that is why she loves it; in that respect, it is not so different from helping a student or an alum. In addition to legal recruiting, she frequently writes and speaks about issues of interest to lawyers and law students. Marty is active in the American Bar Association, having served as liaison to the Commission on Women from the Law Practice Management Section and having founded Women Rainmakers, an organization devoted to training women lawyers in the art of networking and practice building. She has also served on various committees addressing concerns relating to minority lawyer advancement, principally for the Bar Association of San Francisco. She is a member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Council, among other outside interests. Your Corporate Legal Department: Page 5