Joaquin R. Carbonell
General Counsel
Cingular Wireless LLC is the largest wireless company in the United States, generating over $32 billion in annual revenue. Its subscriber base of more than 51 million customers includes 95 members of the Fortune 100, over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, and more than 1,200 federal, state, and local government agencies. Cingular’s diverse workforce mirrors its customer base: People of color make up 40 percent of both. Fifty-five percent of the work force is women. The company’s diversity numbers go up to its highest level: Sixty percent of the people reporting directly to the CEO are minorities.
(L to R): Veta Richardson, MCCA; Joaquin R. Carbonell, Cingular Wireless LLC; and William L. Hawthorne III, Federated Department Stores
The law department, headed by Executive Vice President and General Counsel Joaquin R. Carbonell, also carries the banner for diversity. Cingular signed on to BellSouth’s “Diversity in the Workplace: A Statement of Principle” when it was first circulated in 1999. Of its 37 attorneys, 30 percent are minorities and 32 percent are women; two of Carbonell’s seven direct reports are women, and one is a minority. “I believe being diverse helps us deliver better quality,” says Carbonell.
The law department has many practices in place that reinforce its commitment to diversity. When hiring and promotion opportunities occur, every slate of candidates, whether presented by a search firm or the department’s lawyers, must include women and minorities.
Cingular’s guidelines for outside counsel unequivocally emphasize the company’s expectation that its firms demonstrate the same commitment to diversity. Cingular audits its outside firms every six months, requiring them to report the number of women and minorities working on its matters.
The law department refuses to buy into the excuse that the legal talent pool does not contain enough qualified women and minorities. It has created an internship for a woman or minority attorney, which is usually awarded to a first-year law student. Cingular then not only emphasizes its own ability to find diverse talent, but also works to place the intern at one of its outside law firms. These efforts are paying off: Law firm audits from 2004 showed billings by minorities at $1.21 million and women at $2.24 million.
Cingular has won broad recognition for its diversity results, including a listing in Diversity Inc. as one of its “Top 50 Companies for Diversity,” a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) rating of 86 out of 100 on the Corporate Quality Index, an entry on Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology magazine in 2004 recognizing Cingular’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer of the “50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology,” inclusion in 2004 on LATINA Style magazine’s list as one of the “50 Best Companies for Latinas to Work in the U.S.,” and a listing in Family Digest magazine in 2004 as one of the “Best Companies for African Americans.” Cingular also received the New Freedom Initiative Award from the U.S. Department of Labor for enhancing the ability of disabled Americans to enter and advance in the workplace.
From the November/December 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®