Catherine Lamboley
General Counsel
Shell Oil Company is a model for diversity in corporate America and its legal department has entered the second generation of inclusion success. Shell believes that diversity should not stand alone, but should be a natural part of each activity and process. Going beyond visible differences, the diversity plan leverages all of the unique talents of an organization.
The legal department has focused on three fundamental building blocks for success: a diverse workforce, an inclusive workplace, and strong relationships with a diverse pool of vendors and service providers.
Shell’s legal staff rates the performance of leadership in key diversity measures in upward feedback assessments. The results are provided to its Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Cathy Lamboley, for use in leadership’s performance reviews.
Shell’s legal department is a model of inclusiveness. Nineteen percent of attorneys are ethnic minorities, and 34 percent are female.
The future of diversity for Shell includes developing business with women and people of color. The revamped accounting systems track dollars spent with law firms and other businesses owned by women and people of color. The department has created a minority- and women-owned businesses directory, a multicolored “rainbow” directory, and an online version, which is constantly updated with vendors and recommendations from legal staff.
More recently, Shell began its Law Firm Diversity Initiative, which involves the exchange of diversity best practices with participating outside law firms and the tracking of the utilization of women and minorities on Shell matters at those firms.
Return to List of 2001 Award Winners
From the March 2002 issue of Diversity & The Bar®