Jim Flynn
Managing Partner — Epstein Becker Green PC
I, Jim Flynn, personally commit to the following:
Personal Commitment
- To continuing, personally and as Managing Director of the firm, to ensure that diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) remains a critical focus of the firm, including at both the meetings of our Board of Directors and in our everyday interactions.
- To driving us to fulfill the organizational commitments noted below.
- To participating, with the same consistency but increased determination, in the meetings and efforts of the firm’s board-appointed Diversity and Professional Development Committee to drive DEI initiatives and best practices, set goals and incentives to ensure that the firm’s culture continues to be supportive of diversity, and assess the progress of these goals.
- To going beyond quarterly meetings with Epstein Becker Green’s LCLD Fellows and LCLD Pathfinder’s participants to discuss initiating a further “reach out” campaign to our diverse attorneys to connect with them, to get insight about their experiences working at the firm, and to solicit their suggestions for improvement.
- To working with other leaders at the firm as we are constantly reviewing our recruitment and promotion initiatives to increase diverse representation across all attorney levels.
- To striving to be a better ally, and to working to learn from, and avoid repeating, past mistakes, and to support those on the same journey.
Organizational Commitment
- To support affinity groups that facilitate relationship building among their members and provides a forum in which attorneys can focus on mentorship, networking, recruitment, retention, business development, and client outreach.
- To provide training and professional development programs that mentor, develop and promote our diverse attorneys to become equity partners, to participate in new client pitches, and to work on prominent matters in various practice and office leadership roles.
- To enhance DEI with purpose and intent, and find the most impactful ways for our attorneys to devote time to these causes (including up to 50 hours of billable credit hours to non-partner attorneys for time devoted to DEI-related matters and initiatives, as recently adopted by our Board of Directors, at the urging of the Diversity and Professional Development Committee).
- To enhance accountability, which we have pursued by registering the firm to participate in the Mansfield 5.0 Certification program, effective July 15, 2021, by committing to LCD, and in other ways.
- To recruit diverse law students, which we have done in many ways, including through our evolving 1L Diversity Pipeline Program, which we recently expanded the number of students in more firm offices and developed a bonus program for participants.
- To partner and collaborate with various external organizations focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- To train, and evolve our training, of all employees as it relates to DEI and related topics. In 2021, the firm rolled out a mandatory unconscious bias training for all current and new employees. Additionally, the firm has a required sexual harassment training that has been a part of the firm’s curriculum for the past several years.
- To host our “Continuing the Conversations” sessions, town-hall-type discussions that give our employees a platform to discuss current issues. During the past two years we have highlighted such issues as Disability Awareness, Gender Identity, Health Inequality, Incarceration Disparity, Racial Justice, and Violence Against Asian Americans.
- To support our diverse attorneys in the quest for achievement and self-improvement.
- To support all those who wish to be better allies, who want to learn from, and avoid repeating, their mistakes, and who want support one another on their personal and professional journeys.