Case Study 01 – Boehringer Ingelheim

Thanks to the vision and leadership of Paul Hastings, MCCA partnered with Paul Hastings, its clients, and our corporate members, to closely examine how corporations and its leaders are changing culture in their organizations. We examined three different industries across the country.

The first case study was in collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim. Thanks to Boehringer’s willingness to share and be transparent, we learned what it means to be a leader today where the workforce is forever changing at a pace that reminds me of a flash sale and if you miss that key moment, you can risk losing talent and perhaps even have large protests, which ultimately reduces the bottom line.

We learned that you must be nimble, know your colleagues to demonstrate the advantages of diversity of thought and perspectives.

This new case study also reinforces the findings of our other research undertaken on inclusion in recent years. Notably, when it comes to creating an inclusive workplace, committed leadership really matters. Our Inclusion Index research and report (in partnership with Russell Reynolds Associates) shows that culture must be led by the tone from the top and needs to feel authentic to all. This is echoed in many of the real-life examples Boehringer Ingelheim ‘s U.S. legal team shared in this case study.

This case study also shows how all our system processes need to have a rigorous examination to eliminate bias. For example, we see processes being followed to ensure that two women who were pregnant were offered jobs on the team because they were the best candidates, period – irrelevant of their personal status.

This echoes our own bias interrupters research, which also provides detailed guides and toolkits on how to examine, explore and improve business systems.

We are delighted to present the first in the series of these case studies on creating an inclusive culture in legal teams and look forward to sharing more insights with you as the series continues.