I, Ronald Harris, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitments

• I will lead our firm by example, ensuring we demand and cultivate a diverse, equitable and inclusive community and workplace.
• I will ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are regular topics of discussion at Executive Committee meetings, partner meetings and firm-wide meetings.
• I will regularly engage with our Recruiting Committee and ensure we seek out qualified diverse candidates for hire.
• I will regularly engage with diverse hires throughout the first two years of employment to hear their concerns, to make them feel welcome and included, and to seek ideas for improving their work life.
• I will be willing to listen and self-reflect when realizing we are not doing enough to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
• I will use my voice as a leader in my organization, in the legal profession and our community, to advocate for diverse persons and for diversity, equity and inclusion.
• I will facilitate inclusion by ensuring diverse attorneys have leadership opportunities in our firm’s practice groups and standing committees and that our firm leadership pipeline includes diverse lawyers.
• I will use my position among our firm’s leadership to support examination of our hiring, mentoring, evaluation and promotion practices to determine how they support or impede progress, and work with relevant committee and practice group leadership to implement interventions to remove barriers accordingly.
• 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 assignments, hiring, and compensation.
• I will actively support attorneys in my firm participating in the Fellows and Pathfinder programs.
• I will act as a mentor for a diverse attorney in my firm.
• I will strive to ensure equal opportunities for diverse attorneys to achieve equity membership in my firm.

Organizational Commitments

• We will ensure firm leadership promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and ensure firm leaders represent our diverse lawyers.
• We will conduct exit interviews of all diverse lawyers who leave our firm to determine what more we can do to ensure diverse lawyers thrive and are promoted within the firm.
• We will support organizations in the legal profession and in our communities that promote and encourage diversity, equity and inclusion and assist diverse populations.
• We will foster an inclusive environment where everyone in the firm, including underrepresented minorities, feels welcomed and supported at work.
• We will continue to provide DE&I activities and require regular DE&I training for all attorneys and employees.
• We will focus on DE&I in hiring, including in conjunction with our law school and lateral recruiting.
• We will provide meaningful work opportunities with substantive feedback intended to enable the growth and development of diverse colleagues.
• We will sponsor diversity-related organizations, pipeline programs and community organizations that advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession and beyond.
• We will 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.
• We will continue to commit significant firm resources consistently—through our financial contributions, pro bono work, and programs—to causes that help alleviate systemic racial inequality and social injustice in our communities.
• Diverse attorneys will have equal opportunities to work with all partners and on all types of work.
• Diverse attorneys will be given equal opportunities to develop and foster direct client relationships.
• We will provide clear, measurable plans for providing opportunities for diverse attorney candidates.