Stanley S. Stroup
General Counsel
Wells Fargo’s law department is a long-time diversity champion. This recognition is well-deserved given the company’s success in actively cultivating diversity. Of the 123 attorneys within the law department, 18 are minorities and 57 are women. Additionally, 6 of the 11 managers who report directly to the general counsel are also women. Equally invested in supporting diversity outside of its office, the law department maintains a commitment to working with minority- and women-owned law firms and in identifying diverse talent within the firms they already employ.
Part of the law department’s diversity success can be attributed to senior management’s deep understanding that diversity is not simply about numbers. “There are, in my opinion, two ways to measure success in diversity. One is institutional and the other is individual,” says Stanley S. Stroup, general counsel. “A company cannot achieve the institutional benefits of diversity if it fails at the level of the individual…when all members of the team feel welcome in the workplace and when all members of the team truly believe that they can go as far in the organization as their talent can take them.”
A tribute to this philosophy is the involvement of corporate managers in various diversity-related programs. For example, managers throughout the company, including the law department, help comprise the Wells Fargo Corporate Diversity Council. Last year, the Council helped create Wells Fargo’s first Diversity Week. In that same year, the company rewrote its diversity vision statement, improved job posting applicant response procedures for hiring managers, and focused on training issues to improve design, content, and delivery of programs.
Currently, the Council is focusing on goals such as identifying minority academic and professional associations to increase the availability of candidates who meet Wells Fargo’s business needs, developing a corporate-wide mentoring program, and conducting summits to review training survey findings and recommendations.
Additionally, the California Minority Counsel Program honored the department for its on-going commitment to diversity.
Wells Fargo’s diversity commitment is a shining example of inclusion.
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From the December 2002 issue of Diversity & The Bar®