Celebrating Milestones
Happy New Year and welcome to the inaugural issue of the newly redesigned Diversity & the Bar® magazine! The 2007 year promises to be a very special year for the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA®) as it marks 10 years of service to the legal community, and so it seemed only fitting for this publication to have a facelift for this special year. We hope that you like the new look and our decision to present the magazine with a more black-and-white, retro design!
Each year, diversity efforts within the legal profession achieve new milestones, and I am pleased that this year is no exception. As we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month in May, we honor the fact that the legal profession has experienced a significant increase in the number of Asian American lawyers who have ascended the ranks to the chief legal officer role at the nation’s largest corporations. In fact, MCCA® is happy to report another glass ceiling was shattered with the appointment of the first Asian American woman as General Counsel of a Fortune 500 company-Sandra Leung at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she also serves as Senior Vice President. In this issue of Diversity & the Bar®, top Asian American general counsel share lessons learned along their pathways to success.
June marks LGBT Pride month, and Diversity & the Bar joins in celebrating the accomplishments of LGBT attorneys. Our cover story illuminates some of the challenges faced by “out” attorneys in the workplace. It is MCCA’s belief that increased sensitivity and understanding will help the legal profession to overcome bigotry and other barriers to full inclusion of LGBT lawyers. It’s a topic that we’ll revisit in our next issue with the second article of a two-part series. When you flip through the pages of this magazine, please take note of the outstanding law firms and organizations that choose to advertise in Diversity & the Bar. Remember that it is only through their financial support and commitment to diversity that MCCA is able to deliver this publication. Let’s offer a collective “Thank you!” DB
Veta T. Richardson
From the May/June 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®