Thomas A. Mars
General Counsel
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world’s number-one retailer, with nearly 4,000 stores in the United States across its Wal-Mart, Supercenter, SAM’S CLUB, and Neighborhood Market divisions. It operates internationally in 16 countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, and South Korea. In the fiscal year ending January 31, 2006, Wal-Mart generated more than $300 billion in net sales. Wal-Mart’s commitment to diversity starts with its board of directors and touches every level of the company. The company’s total workforce is more than 60 percent female and almost 32 percent minority. It also employs a significant number of workers age 55 and older.
(L to R): J. P. Suarez of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Thomas A. Mars of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Veta T. Richardson of MCCA; Gary Kennedy of American Airlines; and Jose Villareal of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart’s law department is a model of the company’s commitment to diversity. The U.S. legal department consists of approximately 130 attorneys, of whom 43 percent are women and 26 percent people of color. Further, three division general counsel are women and two are people of color. “Diversity has improved our performance and effectiveness in several respects. As a result of our focus on diversity, both inside our department and with our outside law firms, we have achieved better results for the company, become more efficient in the way we manage large volumes of legal work, and are far more engaged in the growth of our business,” says Senior Vice President and General Counsel Thomas A. Mars.
To build such a diverse department, the legal team recruits actively. It has strengthened not only the diversity profile but also the quality of its legal talent by becoming involved in and pursuing candidates met through minority bar associations, such as the National Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and MCCA®.
Wal-Mart is a signatory of the Call to Action and requires its preferred counsel to demonstrate a similar commitment to diversity. Along with cost and performance, diversity is one of the three key criteria against which Wal-Mart evaluates outside counsel. The company is willing to put its money where its mouth is: Wal-Mart has fired law firms that have not met its standards on diversity in favor of those that do. Wal-Mart also seeks out minority-owned law firms to work on its matters.
Wal-Mart takes seriously its role as a diversity leader in the business community. It established a $25 million private equity fund to provide capital to women- and minority-owned businesses and provided a $1 million grant to the Business Consortium Fund, an initiative of the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Wal-Mart is also a financial sponsor of the MCCA Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr., Scholarship Program.
Wal-Mart has received numerous accolades for its diversity performance. In 2006, Wal-Mart was recognized by the National Association of Women Lawyers. In 2005, Hispanic Magazine named Wal-Mart as one of the “Top 50 Vendor Programs for Latinos.” The Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) Corporate Index listed Wal-Mart as one of the “Top 10 Companies for Hispanic Communities,” and Black Enterprise magazine named it one of “The 30 Best Companies for Diversity.” Vista Magazine announced in 2004 that Wal-Mart was named among its “Top Family Friendly Companies,” and in a poll sponsored by Career and Disabled Magazine in 2004, Wal-Mart was recognized as one of the top companies in the nation for providing a positive working environment for people with disabilities.
From the November/December 2006 issue of Diversity & The Bar®