I, Stephen Zubiago, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitment

• To use my platform and position at Nixon Peabody, in my community, and within the profession to champion and elevate diversity, equity & inclusion
• To ensure that our underrepresented groups have access to the resources and support they need to achieve success within our organization
• To remove any obstacles or barriers to opportunity and advancement which our diverse talent may encounter within my organization
• To promote equity within my firm and in my community, recognizing the impact systemic racism has historically had on racially/ethnically diverse populations
• To hold other leaders within my organization accountable for advancing our DEI goals
• To connect on an individual basis with the diverse talent within my firm and be an advocate for them
• To use my organization capital to ensure advancement and promotion opportunities for women, racially/ethnically diverse, and LGBTQ+ attorneys throughout the firm
• To continue to educate myself on DEI issues
• To listen to the experiences of my diverse colleagues

Organizational Commitment

• To continue to be the voice at the top for our DEI efforts at Nixon Peabody
• To ensure that our DEI goals are public and communicated throughout the firm
• To develop, promote, and advance policies and best practices that focus on expanding opportunities for our diverse talent both internally and externally
• To identify a pipeline of diverse talent for leadership roles across the organization
• To ensure that DEI are an integral part of all recruiting initiatives
• To broaden our reach on recruitment practices, ensuring that we are considering a diverse talent pool
• To require that all attorneys at the firm contribute to our DEI efforts in meaningful ways (i.e. through participation in our educational and training programs, through mentorship programs, building diverse clients, etc.)
• To continue our investment of time and resources in Diversity Lab’s Move the Needle Fund, focusing our efforts on increasing the diversity of our equity partnership by 2025
• To ensure that our diverse talent has meaningful access to career enhancing work and client development opportunities through our workflow management tool
• To continue our participation in Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule initiative, and continue our progress of ensuring that at least 30% of the candidates considered for lateral partnership and leadership roles within our organization are women, racially/ethnically diverse, or LGBTQ+
• To continue building on our education around unconscious bias and how it manifests in the workplace, focusing on techniques to interrupt it
• To continue meaningful engagement with LCLD, and other diversity-focused organizations in the legal profession, incorporating lessons learned into my firm
• To continue improving on the diversity of our client teams, ensuring that our diverse talent is included in client relationships and provided with the opportunities to lead client teams
• To advocate for and ensuring meaningful engagement in DEI for our partners
• To continue emphasizing the importance of utilizing our real time feedback tool so our attorneys receive frequent, substantive feedback on their work product
• To collaborate with clients on advancement of our mutual DEI goals through trainings, programming, and resource groups engagement