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Good Article: Law Firm Diversity

Diversity has become a bit of a buzzword over the past few years. People use it about as much as business people throw around the word “leadership,” as frequently as admissions teams talk about “fit,” and as habitually as law school professors use the word “reasonable.” But thankfully, many institutions today are taking it more seriously. Chief among those institutions are law firms, especially California law firms according to a recent article I found.  Among other things, they are promoting diversity on their websites, starting diversity scholarship programs, increasing target “interview” numbers, and giving diverse employees a seat at the executive table.

I recently found an article that discusses this very issue. The article focuses more on the diversity of new hires than of executives and diversity scholarship, but it raises a few interesting points about ensuring that diversity continues to improve–talking a little about some of the tactics firms are using to recruit and also about the way firms are collaborating to tackle the issue.  Ultimately, the end goal for firms is to use the best tools they can to work effectively and more systematically on the issue and to finally bring change to the legal industry. It sounds like some firms may finally be on their way. And not only is this true in California but it’s definitely true for firms based here in Chicago too, firms like Vedder Price, Foley & Lardner, Kirkland & Ellis, and Perkins Coie (HQ Seattle but big Chicago program)

This could be a really big moment in law firm history. Is your law firm staying on pace with the new diversity standard? What about your business? Or your school? If not, then how will you and your organization fit in going forward?  Will you resist change or will you finally adjust and help push this new standard forward? Why … because sometimes the best leaders aren’t always the entrepreneurs or those who come up with the bright ideas. Instead they’re often the ones with the intuition to quickly recognize another good idea, adapt, and then work in diverse teams and broker complex networks to influence others to do the same. Business and law firms have the current opportunity to lead in the push for diversity.

Please see below for a link to the article.

Title: Study: California Law Firms Lead In Diversity — But It’s Not Easy
Source: Fenwick & West LLP
Article Link: Click here to read the article

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