I, Maria Ginzburg, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitment 

• As Managing Partner of Selendy Gay Elsberg, I will continue to use my leadership position to drive the recruitment, retention, and advancement of diverse and underrepresented lawyers.
• I will help the firm and its people acknowledge the existence of implicit bias and recognize the damage it does. I will drive firm participation in programs that eliminate those biases.
• I will support the firm’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) team in its efforts to identify opportunities for driving our DEI program and will help the team overcome challenges.  
• I will mentor diverse lawyers and business professionals in achieving their full potential and identify career opportunities for them.
• I will continue to use my position and visibility within Selendy Gay Elsberg to improve the equity of processes including but not limited to hiring, compensation, work assignments, and business development opportunities.
• I will encourage our lawyers and business professionals to support and engage with organizations like LCLD that are dedicated to improving DEI in the legal profession and will promote providing pro bono services to underrepresented communities.

Organizational Commitment 

• We will put forward diverse legal teams for pitches and matters.
• We will offer our diverse attorneys the same level of access to clients and courtroom opportunities as our non-diverse lawyers.
• We will aggressively promote and administer the Selendy Gay Elsberg Fellowship—a bespoke program focusing on attracting, retaining, and nurturing outstanding racially diverse candidates and first-generation college students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
• We will continue to provide attorneys with billable hours equivalent credit for activities that support our DEI goals.
• We will make it an expectation that all partners actively participate in diversity recruitment, including diverse laterals, and continue to expand the schools and networks that we recruit from, including historically black universities and law schools.
• We are committed to providing individually tailored training, mentoring and post-recruitment support to help diverse talent achieve their long-term potential, including training on how to effectively “manage up” and cultivate personal leadership skills.
• We will identify and establish long-term relationships with minority organizations for networking and pro bono opportunities, and encourage associates to join junior boards of diversity-focused organizations. We will devote meaningful pro bono hours towards matters that will benefit individuals from disadvantaged communities.
• We will broaden the speakers and trainings focused on implicit bias, cultural competency, diversity, and inclusion.