Tag: Diversity

The X Box: EEOC Announces Addition of Nonbinary Gender Option to Discrimination Charge

In recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility, today, the EEOC announced that it would be providing members of the LGBTQI+ community the option to select a nonbinary “X” gender marker when completing the voluntary self-identification questions that are traditionally part of the intake process for filing a charge of discrimination.

Specifically, in an effort to promote greater equity and inclusion, the EEOC will add an option to mark “X” during two stages of the intake and charge filing process. This addition will be reflected in the EEOC’s voluntary demographic questions relating to gender in the online public portal, which individuals use to submit inquires regarding the filing of a charge of discrimination, as well as related forms that are used in lieu of the online public portal. The nonbinary “X” gender marker will also be included in the EEOC’s modified charge of discrimination form, which will also include “Mx” in the list of prefix options.

Additionally, the EEOC will incorporate the CDC and NCHS’s proposed definition of “X,” which provides as follows: (1) “unspecified,” which promotes privacy for individuals who prefer not to disclose their gender identity; and (2) “another gender identity,” which promotes clarity and inclusion for those who wish to signify that they do not identify as male or female.

The EEOC’s announcement came shortly after the White House released a detailed Fact Sheet highlighting the steps the federal government has taken to address equality and visibility for Transgender Americans.

Article By Aretta K. Bernard and Stephanie Olivera Mittica of Roetzel & Andress LPA

For more labor and employment legal news, click here to visit the National Law Review.

©2022 Roetzel & Andress

How Marketers Can Better Support Inclusion for Women Lawyers of Color — Today

A new in-depth report from the American Bar Association, Left Out and Left Behind: The Hurdles, Hassles and Heartaches of Achieving Long-Term Legal Careers for Women of Color, draws on data and interviews to tell the story of what life is like for women lawyers of color. The report, authored by social scientist Destiny Peery, past ABA president Paulette Brown and Chicago attorney Eileen Letts, demonstrates why, despite increased efforts by firms and the profession generally, to improve diversity and inclusion, women of color continue to face barriers to advancement and are much more likely than white women counterparts to leave the profession.

This report is essential reading for any law leader who is serious about making true substantive changes that will improve the retention and advancement of women of color — particularly those leaders whose firms are posting “Black Lives Matter” messages in internal communications and on social media channels. Becoming an antiracist law firm does not end with a slogan or “messaging” — it requires an honest examination of formal and informal policies and practices, and a reckoning with the impact of those policies on lawyers of color. Then it’s time to reimagine how your firm runs to make sure opportunities are fairly distributed.

While it’s very important to hear and sit with the stories individual lawyers share from their experience of implicit and explicit bias, if I know my audience of driven, task-oriented marketers and communicators, you will be skipping to the end, where the report recommends next steps for firms that want to take action. Below I outline those general recommendations, and then consider the role of the marketing department in helping to make them a reality.

Adopt Best Practices for Reducing Biases in Decision-Making. “[P]revious research that has shown that high levels of subjectivity in promotion standards, selection for assignments, compensation decisions, and performance appraisals are often colored by stereotypes and serve as institutional and structural barriers to the advancement of women of color and other underrepresented attorneys.”

What Marketers Can Do: How does your department determine which partners receive marketing and communications support as they work to build their business? Is there a way to distribute those resources — help with individual lawyers’ social media channels, assistance writing and placing thought leadership, nominations for awards and key boards of directors — more fairly to elevate your firm’s diverse attorneys? How can you help advise up-and-coming partners on which opportunities will be the best use of their limited time and make the biggest impact on their business development?

Improve Access to Effective, Engaged Mentors and Sponsors. “[W]omen of color are especially likely to report that they lack access to mentors or sponsors who are well-connected and have power and influence to both clue them into important dynamics of the workplace and effectively advocate for them.”

What Marketers Can Do: Marketers have a great opportunity to help create mentorship and sponsorship relationships through the business development and proposal-writing process. By now, most rainmakers and practice leaders understand that business clients demand to be served by diverse teams. So they’re being thoughtful about including diverse attorneys in pitch decks and other materials. You can help move that inclusion to the next level by adding a follow-up communication step to your BD process in which all named/pictured team members de-brief and offer feedback. This is a simple way to build a platform upon which younger and diverse attorneys can demonstrate their value in front of the senior partners who can shape their career opportunities. In addition, you can use channels like the internal firm newsletter to educate more senior partners on how to effectively advocate for diverse attorneys — and, in doing so, help the firm stand out as a leader on an issue that matters very much to clients.

Take an Intersectional Approach to Addressing Diversity and Gender. “[B]lindness to or ignorance of the ways that gender and race (as well as other social identities) can interact to create distinct experiences” has so far limited what firms have been able to achieve. Firms must acknowledge that, while they are still disadvantaged, white women’s careers develop differently because of their access to privilege. They navigate networking differently, are viewed differently by colleagues, clients, and judges, and receive distinct treatment when it comes to work distribution and performance evaluation.

What Marketers Can Do: Take a look at how you use words like “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” in internal and external firm communications. Do you grapple with intersectionality — that is, the way that experiences of race and gender (and class and sexuality and ability) intersect for your attorneys — in your messaging? Are there ways that your “diversity” initiatives and communications erase the experience of women who are not white? How could you make changes to address this issue?

 “[O]ur participants mentioned again and again the myriad ways that the culture of the legal profession interfered with their abilities to succeed, to feel valued, and sometimes to persist in the legal profession.”

What Marketers Can Do. So much! 1) Take a look at your firm’s (pre-Covid, in-person) events. Where are they typically held? Do you always choose locations and activities that are most comfortable for wealthy white men? How might you change things up? 2) Does your firm have a written editorial style guide? If so, does it include a section on inclusive language so that everyone knows how to use language in the most inclusive ways possible? 3) If your intended audience for your internal firm communications is “everyone,” are you sure your language and framing actually accomplish that goal, or are you unintentionally treating a white reader as the default? 4) What other unexamined policies, practices, habits and conventions may implicitly communicate to diverse partners that they don’t fully belong? Learning how to spot potential for “othering” and exclusion in communications and other marketing activities is an important skill your department needs to teach its junior members and encourage them to practice.

True change that makes law firms into more equitable and inclusive workplaces for all lawyers must happen on both the systemic and individual levels. While many of the most sweeping and necessary changes are out of the hands of junior and senior legal marketers, there are plenty of things we can do within the scope of our influence that will make a difference. And the time to start is now.

© 2020 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

ARTICLE BY Debra Pickett at Page 2 Communications.

For more on diversity in law firms, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

What Should You Do About D&I Efforts During a Pandemic? Exactly What You Were Doing Before

The tremendous economic uncertainty emerging in the wake of COVID-19 is forcing law firm leaders to contend with challenges they’ve never faced before. People are scared, and for good reason. Given the enormous financial pressure firms feel, it’s understandable that leaders may opt to push diversity and inclusion efforts to the back burner for a while — or is it?

Let’s review what we know about the business case for creating more diverse firms.

In other words, improving law firm diversity is an imperative for any firm hoping to compete in the marketplace. That was true before the pandemic, and it’s still true today, despite how much more difficult it may be to achieve this goal.

Here’s the good news: expensive, outward-facing diversity and inclusion initiatives that are more about marketing than substance probably are not the best use of constrained law firm resources. Instead, firm leaders should consider simple, effective interventions that will protect the progress they have made in elevating more women and minority attorneys to power, and make it possible for that work to continue:

Help women and minority partners build their profiles remotely. Now that all in-person avenues to developing business are closed, firms are thinking strategically about how their attorneys should move those efforts online. But top-down orders to “leverage LinkedIn” or “keep up with your contacts virtually” are not useful to attorneys who didn’t have robust “old boy” networks to begin with. Online networking is a skill, just like other business development techniques. If your firm was providing coaching support to high-potential attorneys to help them with business development in the real world, that same support is needed now for new kinds of marketing efforts. Attorneys are going to need tutorials that walk them through best practices and provide support by phone or email. Marketing departments can create these resources or contract outside support to do this training work. Then they must oversee the execution to ensure attorneys stay part of the online conversation in their target industries. Is it possible to assign marketing department staff to this task, particular those who typically staff events and may have extra capacity?

Keep the content coming. Social media profiles are only as strong as the content attorneys have to share there. We know that implicit bias can make it more difficult for women and minority attorneys to demonstrate their subject-matter expertise and be considered for the same opportunities as less experienced white men. This makes thought leadership articles and opportunities to be featured as an “expert source” in key media outlets all the more important for building these attorneys’ reputation with prospects. When putting your firm’s experts forward on webinars, thought leadership articles and media pitches, consider who’s being included — and who’s not. If the faces of your firm’s most important expertise are all white men, you’re sending the message that your other attorneys are somehow less qualified to lead in a crisis.

Bear equity in mind when handling award nominations. The earliest and most chaotic weeks of the COVID crisis happened to coincide with an already busy time on many legal marketers’ calendars: award season. Nominations for “rising star” and other programs are typically due in spring, and gathering client testimonials, case examples and other supporting materials can be time consuming and logistically challenging under normal circumstances. And we know that the required effort (which of course comes on top of keeping up with billable work), combined with the often-gendered tendency to be more reticent about self-promotion, means that award nominees can be less than representative of a firm’s diversity anyway. This year, women bearing the brunt of new childcare and homeschooling responsibilities, along with those who care for extended family members, had even less bandwidth and energy to put themselves forward for industry honors. What can your team do to ensure that your award nominees reflect the true diversity of your emerging lawyers, rather than an oversampling of those privileged enough to have more spare time on their hands?

Make evaluations more transparent and consider what “fairness” means right now. In addition to thinking about the intersection of inclusion and business development, firm leaders will need to consider how to evaluate the work attorneys do under these extraordinary circumstances. Obviously it would not be fair to hold attorneys to the standards for billable hours that they would during a normal year, but what should revised standards look like? As noted, women are taking on a greater share of the childcare, homeschooling and household duties under lockdown, which makes it more difficult for them to bill the same number of hours or develop as much new business as men. How can you make sure they won’t be penalized for this when it comes time to make decisions about compensation and promotion? Questions about how to fairly and holistically evaluate attorneys’ work long predate the current crisis, and they are going to become more urgent in the months to come. The current system continues to reward white men above other demographic groups. It’s time for reform.

No question this is a frightening time for firm leaders, and they will want to focus their limited attention on what matters most for the survival of the firm. That shortlist should include a continued commitment to diversity and inclusion. The business case is clear, and hard-won gains for women and minorities are hanging in the balance.

© 2020 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

ARTICLE BY Debra Pickett of Page 2 Communications.
For more on continuing normal business operations amid COVID-19, see the National Law Review Coronavirus News section.

Supporting Diverse Attorneys: How Marketing Pros Can Become a Business Development Ally

The path to partnership, which many attorneys aspire to achieve, can be a long and challenging road. In order to get there, an attorney’s ability to generate new business is a critical component. The partnership track can be even more difficult for diverse attorneys, as this group tends to lag behind their counterparts in business development. It begs the question: Why do diverse attorneys face challenges in business development, and how can marketing and business development professionals better support their diverse attorneys?

During the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Southwest Region Conference in September 2019, Tasneem Khokha and Holly Barocio from GrowthPlay, presented on how we can better understand and counsel diverse attorneys, and examined the main challenges these attorneys face in building and sustaining their book of business.

Some of the key challenges Tasneem and Holly discussed, include:

  • A lack of, or much smaller network of, potential business as compared to their counterparts.
  • Feelings of being labeled as the token diverse attorney to add to a pitch.
  • Feeling as though they lack a common ground with decision-makers because of different life experiences.
  • Feeling pressure to have to work harder in order to “prove” themselves.
  • Feeling uncomfortable asking for opportunities as compared to their counterparts.

So how can marketing and business development professionals help their attorneys navigate these concerns? It starts with listening and understanding. No one can make the experiences that diverse attorneys face disappear, but marketing professionals can help them turn these challenges into opportunities and set them up to handle future experiences with ease. It’s important to remember the underlying characteristics of great business development, which are:

  • Being an authentic relationship builder.
  • Having the ability to provide solutions to problems, even if you aren’t always rewarded for your efforts.
  • Avoiding pitfalls, such as rushing to sell too soon.

While some diverse attorneys may inherently have a smaller network, if they are armed with the skill set to build authentic relationships and provide solutions to problems, they will be viewed as someone others can trust – a key characteristic of someone who can build a strong book of business. As a marketing and business development professional, being able to authentically counsel diverse attorneys is invaluable. Here are some techniques:

  • Not having commonalities with decision-makers because of different life experiences is not a make or break situation. You can find commonalities in anything – love for sports? hobbies? pets? You’d be surprised the connections people can make if they listen and pay attention to the person they are talking to.
  • From a poll of the audience, some diverse attorneys may feel that being the token diverse attorney is a negative and does not allow them to be recognized for their skills and experience. Be candid and acknowledge the elephant in the room, but advise them to take the ball and run with it. Encourage them to open up about whether they like the work or prefer to do something different, but they must seize the opportunity.
  • Another common concern is that diverse attorneys are less inclined to ask for opportunities. For marketing professionals, be there to help connect the dots and nudge diverse attorneys to openly discuss what excites them and what they want more of. Diverse attorneys may feel siloed, but you can help connect them with others in the firm who can propel them further in their careers.

© 2020 Berbay Marketing & Public Relations

For more on legal business development, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

Illinois House Bill Requires Corporations to Report to Secretary of State

House Bill 3394, approved by the Governor on August 27, 2019 and effective immediately (Public Act 100-589), amends the Business Corporation Act of 1983 (“BCA”) to add new Section 8.12 and amend Section 14.05.

New BCA Section 8.12 provides that domestic and foreign corporations, as soon as possible but not later than January 1, 2021, to report to the Secretary of State, on its Annual Report:

  1. Whether the corporation is a publicly held domestic or foreign corporation with its principal executive office located in Illinois
  2. Data on specific qualifications, skills and experience that the corporation considers for its board of directors, nominees for the board of directors and executive officers
  3. Whether each member of the corporation’s board of directors self-identifies as a minority person and, if so, which race or ethnicity to which the member belongs
  4. Other information

New BCA Section 8.12 also requires the Secretary to State to make the information public and report the information to the University of Illinois which is to review the reported information and publish, on its website, a report that provides aggregate data on the demographic characteristics of the boards of directors and executive officers of corporations filing an annual report for the preceding year along with an individualized rating (establish by the University of Illinois assessing the representation of women and minorities on corporate boards)  for each such corporation. The University of Illinois’ is also required to identify strategies for promoting diversity and inclusion among boards of directors and corporate executive officers.

BCA Section 14.05 as amended adds new Sections 14.05(k) and 14.05(l).  New BCA Section 14.05(k) requires each corporation or foreign corporation to state on its Annual Report whether the corporation has outstanding shares listed on a major United States stock exchange and is thereby subject to the reporting requirements of new BCA Section 8.12.  New BCA Section 14.05(l) requires corporations subject to new BCA Section 8.12 to provide the information required by new BCA Section 8.12.

It is our understanding that Form 14.05, Illinois Annual Report, is currently being amended to reflect these changes.

© Horwood Marcus & Berk Chartered 2020. All Rights Reserved.

For more on corporate reporting requirements, see the National Law Review Corporate & Business Organizations law page.

California Board Gender Quota Law Challenged In Federal Court

Cydney Posner at Cooley LLP wrote last week about a new challenge to California’s Board Gender Quota law.  The lawsuit, Creighton Meland v. Alex Padilla, Secretary of State of California, was reportedly filed in federal district court in California by a shareholder of OSI Systems, Inc.  According to OSI’s most recently filed Form 10-Q, the company is incorporated in Delaware, its principal executive offices are in California, and its shares are traded on The Nasdaq Global Select Market.  The lawsuit alleges violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

As this case progresses, one question might be whether the plaintiff’s claim is direct or derivative.  OSI is not named as a party to the lawsuit and the plaintiff alleges that the law injures his “right to vote for the candidate of his choice, free from the threat that the corporation will be fined if he votes without regard to sex”.  The Delaware Supreme Court’s test for whether a stockholder’s action for breach of fiduciary duty is derivative or direct asks two questions:

“Who suffered the alleged harm–the corporation or the suing stockholder individually–and who would receive the benefit of the recovery or other remedy?”

Tooley v. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., 845 A.2d 1031 (Del. 2004).  Although the corporation will be fined and the fine suffered by all of the stockholders, the plaintiff is alleging that he is being injured by being denied the freedom to vote without regard to sex.  Presumably, that injury would be removed if the law is enjoined.

Interestingly, OSI does not appear in the California Secretary of State’s listing of SB 826 corporations published earlier this year.  According to the proxy statement filed by OSI last month, all of the current directors are men, but a female has been nominated for election at the upcoming meeting.

© 2010-2019 Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP

More on Corporate Board diversity rules on the Corporate & Business Organizations law page of the National Law Review

Gaming Industry Associations Agree on Universal Esports Principles

Earlier this month, a set of gaming industry representatives agreed upon and released a set of unifying esports principles. These representatives include the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), as well as associations from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the UK, and Europe. These “Principles of Esports Engagement” were developed in a collaborative effort and form a set of values applicable in all aspects of the global esports environment.

The principles include the following:

  • Safety and Well-Being
    • All esports community members deserve to participate in and enjoy esports in safe spaces and to be free from threats and acts of violence and from language or behavior that makes people feel threatened or harassed.
  • Integrity and Fair Play
    • Cheating, hacking, or otherwise engaging in disreputable, deceitful, or dishonest behavior detracts from the experience of others, unfairly advantages teams and players, and tarnishes the legitimacy of esports.
  • Respect and Diversity
    • Esports promotes a spirit of healthy competition. Whether in person or online, all members of the esports community should demonstrate respect and courtesy to others, including teammates, opponents, game officials, organizers, and spectators. 
    • Esports is truly global and brings together players from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. We believe the broad and diverse player base of esports contributes to its success. We support an open, inclusive, and welcoming environment for all, no matter one’s gender identity, age, ability, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
  • Positive and Enriching Game Play
    • Esports can help build self-confidence and sportsmanship and boost interpersonal communication and teamwork skills. Esports brings players and fans together to problem solve through strategic play, collaboration, and critical thinking. Participation in esports can also lead to the development of new and lasting friendships among teammates, competitors, and members of the broader esports community.

The goal of these organizations in releasing this set of principles is to foster an esports community that is responsible, welcoming, engaging, and of course, fun. Notably, in ESA’s press release announcing these principles, the association highlighted the growth of esports, citing research that estimates that, in 2019, global esports viewership will hit nearly 500 million and revenues will exceed $1 billion USD. With this level of growth, the esports community has a vested interest in supporting the best conditions for play and ensuring esports remains an exciting and inclusive activity and industry at all levels.

Copyright © 2019, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.

For more video gaming issues, see the National Law Review Entertainment, Art & Sports law page.

5 Ways Traditional Law Firm Culture Burdens Lawyers of Color

City University of New York Scholar and Sociologist Tsedale M. Melaku studies diversity in the legal field, and in a recent Harvard Business Review article she wrote specifically about the social and professional challenges nonwhite lawyers face when they work for traditional law firms. While most white law leaders now appreciate the importance of fostering diversity, their own life experiences may blind them to the specific ways in which conventional law firm culture complicates the path for the lawyers they sincerely want to recruit, retain and support.

Fortunately, Melaku’s interviews with these lawyers illuminate the very concrete problems — and hint at solutions, many of which can be driven, or at least implemented, by marketing and business development teams. Here’s a handful of the challenges these lawyers face:

PR and marketing support automatically follows the rainmakers.

When an attorney lands a game-changing client or nabs a record settlement, the firm promotes the win with a press release, mention in the legal press and maybe even an opportunity for that lawyer to write a column on his practice area. Those are all smart PR moves. But if your marketing and PR “carrots” are distributed just to your firm’s big winners, you may find that every time a picture of one of your lawyers runs in the legal press, it is one of the same handful of white men.

Instead, firms need to imagine a broader purpose for PR: spotlighting attorneys for what makes them unique can be a catalyst for growth and advancement, rather than just a reward that comes after an important deal. Do you have attorneys taking a novel approach to some niche within their practice area? Or who came to their work in the law by an unusual route? What about interesting pro bono work? An active blog, a podcast or other creative use of technology to reach clients? All of these traits represent potential avenues for feature stories, bylined thought leadership articles, conversations with reporters or ideas for conference panels that will give new attorneys a chance to build their individual profiles and the overall brand of the firm.

Serving as the “face” of the firm’s diversity initiatives is (uncompensated) work.

Sadly, diversity is so rare in the leadership class that when firms do manage to advance a lawyer of color, that person is often tasked with representing the firm on panels and at events in addition to serving their clients. While some lawyers may welcome these opportunities, others might prefer to focus on the practice of law. So, even as firms provide additional PR and marketing support for diverse attorneys, firm leaders must recognize that contributing to outreach and diversity initiatives is work — and should be treated as such. Some firms allow attorneys to bill for this time just as they would for client work. Others consider it on performance evaluations when it comes time for raises or bonuses. Find a way to compensate these attorneys for this extra work.

Traditional networking depends on access.

Snagging clients on the golf course, in the country club, or during an ivy league alumni weekend are great business development strategies — for some people. But not all lawyers grew up playing golf, and many elite clubs in this country still have a checkered relationship with diversity, making membership far from routine or even comfortable for lawyers of color. Does your firm celebrate these “chance” encounters with clients at the expense of more formal and inclusive forms of networking?

Support your hires from nontraditional backgrounds by helping them build professional networks that feel authentic to their own experience. This might include support from communications professionals to pitch them for conference panels, nominate them for awards and help them get involved in professional organizations. There is more than one way to network, and lawyers need to know their firm supports their pursuit of new business in ways that honor who they are.

Mentors tend to choose mentees who look like them.

Mentoring has been held up as a key tool for improving retention and advancement. But when senior attorneys think about grooming the lawyers who will someday lead the firm — and inherit their clients — they tend to choose the lawyers who remind them of themselves. Firms are fond of saying that mentoring relationships should come together “naturally,” but for young lawyers who don’t see people like them in leadership positions, this often leads to no mentoring at all.

Firms can take action on this without getting paralyzed by the chicken-and-egg problem (the only way to advance young minority lawyers is to put minority mentors in place, but those lawyers need mentors to get there). Proactive planning to make mentoring part of the work process, and careful matchmaking to connect your firm’s best teachers with the lawyers who can benefit from their experience are good first steps. Not everyone is cut out to be a mentor, and that’s fine. The firm should take responsibility for facilitating these relationships and for evaluating the effectiveness of mentors. Are their mentees advancing in demonstrable ways? Mentorship should involve more than just offering advice; mentors should also be actively sponsoring and promoting their protégés for stretch assignments and leadership opportunities.

Dress codes privilege European standards.

Lawyers of color face both explicit and implicit expectations about how members of the firm should dress and wear their hair. While written dress codes that prohibit, for example, garments worn for religious reasons are obvious violations of equal employment opportunity laws, rules that bar styles worn for cultural or personal reasons may be legal but no less burdensome. In some firms, the written dress code is quite vague, requiring “professional dress,” but the implicit expectations that come along with it are specific and exacting.

The truth is, the notion that conservative business suits for men and women set the standard for professionalism is a white, Western idea. So are norms around hairstyles, facial hair, makeup, jewelry, fingernails, heel height and other aspects of personal expression. Body sizes vary, and not everyone can easily (or affordably) adhere to traditional requirements. Or they may not want to. Dressing authentically is, for many people, an expression of pride in their identities and an opportunity to increase visibility and inclusion, sending a message to younger attorneys on the way up that they, too, belong. If your firm insists on conformity, even when it doesn’t impact job performance, whom might that exclude? And what does your firm miss out on when your lawyers aren’t comfortable bringing their whole selves to work?

Firms that are truly serious about moving the needle on diversity and inclusion understand that the secret is not rearranging the seats at the table, but making that table bigger. In every aspect of work life at the firm — office culture, client engagement, mentoring, promotion and, of course, the practice of law itself — you must establish policies that encourage your attorneys to bring their unique perspectives and insights with them each day. It’s how you will retain and advance the diverse leadership class your clients demand. And it’s the only way you will realize the true benefits that come from different kinds of people solving problems in different ways.

© 2019 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

For more on law firm diversity, see the National Law Review Law Office Management page.

Your Firm Is Walking the Walk on Diversity, But Are Your Leaders Talking the Talk?

When it comes to getting the word out about their firm’s gender diversity, many marketing directors focus on publicizing stats that demonstrate progress. Using external communications to spotlight an evenly split associate class, a new equity partner who is a woman or the contributions of women attorneys on marquee cases is a great way to promote your firm’s commitment to gender equality.

But statistics are only one piece of the story about how your firm supports its women lawyers. And that full story may already be on display for prospective clients and recruits, whether you realize it or not. Your overall messaging comes across not just in the communications you produce — on your website, on social media, in ads and thought leadership pieces — but also in who speaks for your firm in the media and what they say. There’s nothing worse than launching an ambitious information campaign to modernize your firm’s image, only to have it undermined by comments to a reporter that are way off message.

Let’s look at two hypothetical cases of law firm leaders quoted in a legal media story on the lack of women represented in banking and finance law.

Law leader A describes his firm’s talent-driven effort to bring in the best women attorneys as well as a robust mentoring and sponsorship program focused on advancing them to leadership positions. “It’s important to us to promote top women attorneys,” he says. “But inclusion isn’t something the firm is embracing out of social correctness or benevolence. Instead, we know, and research shows, that more diverse teams of lawyers are better problem solvers, which means they provide better service to clients. More women in leadership is good for the firm and good for our clients.”

Law leader B talks about his firm’s efforts in a different way. He notes that he’s pretty sure the firm won the business on a $30 billion deal because they included a woman on the team at the pitch meeting, though he doesn’t say whether that woman will play a significant role on the work itself. On the matter of advancing women attorneys in this practice area, he says, “We’re trying, but this job is just inherently demanding and unpredictable, and it’s tough for someone with childcare responsibilities to fully participate.”

Leader A’s comments underscore the marketing department’s work to get the word out about the progress the firm is making on gender diversity. He skillfully articulates not just what the firm is doing but why, and how these initiatives will ultimately benefit clients.

Leader B’s comments, however, will make most marketing directors break into a sweat. He talks about diversity as a legal obligation but also a burden on the firm. And while he seems genuinely to believe that a lack of women in power is a loss for those women, he does not articulate an understanding that the firm and its clients are worse off without the unique contributions those women attorneys would make to the work. Comments like these to a reporter are off message and undermine the firm’s overall goal to demonstrate that it is willing to change things like work processes and schedules to prioritize gender diversity.

Marketing directors don’t always have control over who takes a reporter’s call or what that person chooses to say. But as much as possible, marketers must take proactive steps to harness the power of these media opportunities and make sure they work in service of the firm’s overall communications strategy. Here are three ways you can start this work today:

Integrate messaging across internal and external communications. Has your firm articulated how its gender-equality initiatives line up with its stated values or mission statement? Your internal communications are the place to begin distributing those talking points. All members of the firm should understand not just what you are doing to support the advancement of women but why, and how the initiatives serve clients. This messaging should be consistent across your internal and external outreach.

Advocate for media training. High-quality media training will prepare your firm’s leaders to speak knowledgably about the firm’s diversity initiatives and stay on message. It will also help to create a plan for which leaders should speak on which topics to maximize credibility.

Broker relationships between key reporters and select attorneys. You can influence who becomes the face of the firm in the media by taking proactive steps to match reporters with your best spokespeople and steering them away from less reliable partners. To maximize the effectiveness of these introductions, prepare both parties for the conversation: help your firm representative understand the reporter’s specific interests, and provide the reporter with background on the attorney’s expertise and roles within the firm. Don’t leave anything to chance.

Your efforts to promote your firm’s diversity initiatives will only be successful if your messaging is consistent across all channels. Get proactive to ensure that your firm’s media opportunities support your communication strategy and build the firm’s brand overall.

© 2019 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

For more information, see the National Law Review Law Office Management page.

Three Ways Legal PR Specialists can Support Your Firm’s Diverse Attorneys

Law firms serving corporate clients face increasing pressure not only to make their workplaces more diverse and inclusive overall, but also to ensure that more women and people of color occupy top positions of power. Last January’s open letter from 170 general counsel serves as the most pointed example of this client demand. In it, they called on law partners to “develop, promote and retain talented and diverse attorneys”—or risk losing business to firms that take diversity and inclusion seriously.

Law firm leaders who have long paid lip service to these goals without actually changing their recruiting, professional development or performance evaluation practices face a true crisis, and mapping out a path forward that satisfies client demand, not to mention the moral imperative to create firms that better represent our society, will require a multifaceted approach. It might surprise you to learn that a sophisticated communications and media strategy is a crucial piece of that plan.

While public relations may not seem to have an obvious connection with diversity efforts, PR partners who specialize in the legal sector can provide law firm leaders with strategic, targeted support to meet their goals for equity. Effective law firm PR partners can help you:

Audit current initiatives. Most firms are doing something on diversity and inclusion, with varying results. If these initiatives are not yielding the desired outcome, it’s time to think about why. Sometimes the real problem is not a lack of effort but the flawed thinking behind a program.

For example, many initiatives intended to address gender equality target differences in women’s approach to risk-taking, negotiation, and work-life balance. While that may sound like progress, focusing on individual women’s choices furthers beliefs and stereotypes that have been debunked by decades of reliable data about fundamental gender differences. Men and women are not nearly so different as we persist in believing. They behave differently in various settings not because of inherent traits but because of organizational practices that reward and punish men and women differently. Equity initiatives that target systemic issues like parental leave and the pay gap are more likely to improve the promotion and retention of women.

As your approach to improving diversity evolves, your internal and external communications need to evolve too. PR support can help you demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of the problems and the solutions—and show clients that you are serious about making measurable progress.

Reimagine networking. Today’s attorneys know they must provide excellent client service and master the art of business development. That typically involves some form of networking: getting out of the office to form relationships with clients and prospects, and planting the seeds for referrals and new business down the road. But old-fashioned networking—on the golf course, in the bar, at the country club—is not always a strategy that works for women, people of color, LGBTQ lawyers, and others who have come to the field from outside the old boys’ network. If you are serious about supporting your diverse attorneys, you can get proactive about professional development that helps them build their business in ways that work for them. And your PR team can help these attorneys become more active in relevant professional organizations, nominate them for awards, boost their online and social media presence, and facilitate alternative networking opportunities.

Activate a hands-on media strategy. A customized, targeted plan to promote your diverse attorneys’ immense skills and experience, as well as their innovative approaches to old problems, is key to raising their profiles and, by extension, your firm’s profile as well. PR support can help attorneys build relationships with the reporters who cover issues in their practice area so that they can become expert sources. Attorneys can partner with writers to create thought leadership articles for the publications most widely read by their clients and prospects. Nothing helps you take control of the narrative about your firm like media opportunities that highlight the skills and experience of your current and future diverse superstars.

With clients pressuring law firms to change their ways, creating a diverse and inclusive workplace has gone from a lofty goal to a strategic imperative. This necessary transformation presents leaders with significant challenges, but the good news is you don’t have to go it alone. Experts in communications and media strategy can help you take practical steps to develop and support the diverse attorneys who serve your most valued clients.  And, of course, as you would expect, PR professionals can also help you share the good news about the progress you’re making in advancing diversity and inclusion in your firm.

© 2019 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

This article is by Debra Pickett of Page 2 Communications.