Diversity: Acknowledging and accepting different backgrounds, including ethnic, racial, thinking styles, religious beliefs, communication styles, education, parental status, and sexual orientation, to name a few, without judgment or presumption. At the organizational level, organizations examine policies, procedures and structures to identify those barriers that keep people who are different from succeeding.
CHARACTERISTICS
Focus on increasing diversity among legal staff.
Basic awareness of diversity being "the right thing to do".
Rules for advancement or promotion are unclear among attorneys.
Company-wide affinity or employee resource groups for different ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and management level.
People of color feel underutilized and not respected by staff and clients.
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Articulated business case.
Commitment from general counsel to promote diversity.
Senior management consults with human resources to produce a plan to meet company-wide diversity goals.
STRUCTURE
Person(s) within law department or human resources assigned responsibility for monitoring business unit's progress on diversity.
RECRUITMENT
Work with executive search firms to fill positions as they become available with qualified minority and women attorneys.
Numerical goals for demographic representation set and communicated to human resources.
Goals include short-term (1-5 years) and long-term (6-10 years) targets. They are defined based on availability within the applicant pool.
RETENTION
Educational training on awareness of issues of minority and women attorneys.
Informal mentoring for new hires.
Work/life initiatives to meet needs of attorneys with family commitments.
EXTERNAL DIVERSITY
Encourage outside counsel to increase diversity and to assign minorities and women to company legal matters.
Statement of Principle Signatory.
METRICS
Job offers/refusals.*
Length of tenure.*
Number of voluntary terminations.*
Cost per hire per recruiting source (for example, executive search firm vs. internet job posting).
Litigation costs by complaints/ grievances.
Demographic representation at different management levels and practice areas (for example, number of minorities and women at key management positions).
