I, Robert Hicks, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitments

• I will use my voice as a leader in my organization and in the profession to advocate for DE&I in the legal profession and in my community.
• I will use my position among my firm’s leadership to advocate for changes to improve the equity of processes such as work assignment, hiring, and compensation.
• I will partner with General Counsel to host an LCLD Leadership lunch in at least one Taft geographic market.
• I will personally sponsor one diverse junior attorney and one diverse new partner each year. As part of this relationship, I will ensure that each protégé receives a concrete stretch opportunity for internal/ external visibility each quarter.

Organizational Commitments

• I will require practice group leaders to prepare and present to firm leadership annual DE&I action plans and related metrics.
• I will create a directory of lawyers who identify as diverse, and circulate it with practice group leaders and others building client teams. I will work with my firm to create an internal process to evaluate all client teams for diversity.
• I will review my firm’s origination credit process to ensure that practices such as credit-sharing and developing business are equitable.
• I will ensure that at least 30% of the lawyers in my firm’s Mentor Champion Program are diverse, and that diverse lawyers in the Program are sponsored by senior leaders within the firm.
• Within two years, I will work with my firm to create partner compensation incentives so that partners are evaluated on their personal contributions to DE&I, including demographics of client matter teams, occasions when the partner has designated a diverse lawyer to serve in a senior client relationship role, introduction of diverse lawyers into client relationships, etc.