I, Steven Sonberg, personally commit to the following:

Personal Commitment

• Use my voice as a leader in my organization and in the profession to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in my organization, the legal profession, and in my community.
• Use my position among my firm’s leadership to advocate for changes to make more equitable the key talent management processes such as hiring, work allocation, promotion, and compensation.
• Before the end of 2022, partner with a general counsel to host an LCLD Leadership Lunch in a city in which the firm employs a critical mass of diverse attorneys.
• Meet annually with my firm’s Fellows and Alumni to discuss their experiences within the firm and require each individual to come to the meeting with a recommendation for how the firm could improve.
• Meet biannually with the firm’s affinity group leaders to discuss the experiences of attorneys from traditionally underrepresented groups within the firm and require each affinity group leader to come to the meeting with a recommendation for how the firm could improve.
• Within the next two years, work with the firm’s relationship partners to speak with 10 clients about opportunities to collaborate to advance the careers of diverse lawyers within the firm. These discussions will also explore the clients’ recommendations of diverse talent to recruit to the law firm.

Organizational Commitment

• Ensure that DE&I are integrated in major firm decisions, including partner promotions, leadership and governance roles, associate and partner hiring, allocation of work, business and client development opportunities, and implementation of firmwide initiatives and policies.
• Require all partners with formal leadership roles to participate in inclusive leadership training or unconscious bias training at least once per year.
• Require practice group leaders to prepare and present to the firm’s senior leadership annual DE&I action plans and related metrics that address recruiting, retention, and advancement within the practice group.
• Develop an action plan and related metrics for increasing the firm’s hiring of attorneys from traditionally underrepresented groups at all levels, with a focus on key markets with a greater concentration of lawyers from traditionally underrepresented groups, including but not limited to, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
• Explore the development and implementation of a sponsorship program within the firm, ensure that at least 30% of the lawyers in the sponsorship program are diverse, and ensure that diverse lawyers in the program are sponsored by senior leaders within the firm.
• Work with the Steering Committee of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Engagement Initiative to assess our progress in partnering with clients who share our commitment to DE&I and evaluate opportunities for improvement on both the firm side and client side.
• Work with the firm’s relationship partners to select 5-10 clients each year and work with them to increase the leadership opportunities for and participation of diverse attorneys on their matters.
• Implement a policy to provide creditable hours for DE&I or racial justice work (other than pro bono work).
• Continue to support efforts to diversify the pipeline into the legal profession through involvement with organizations such as the Thrive Scholars Law Program Track.
• Review and adjust work assignment processes for associates to facilitate equitable work opportunities and career development with a focus on opportunities for lawyers from traditionally underrepresented groups.
• Work with the firm’s senior leadership to create partner compensation incentives such that partners are evaluated on and held accountable for their personal contributions to DE&I, including demographics of client service teams, occasions when the partner designated a diverse lawyer to serve in a senior client relationship role, introduction of diverse lawyers into client relationships, etc.
• Work with the firm’s senior leadership to ensure that diverse lawyers receive appropriate internal credit for client-facing activities and to ensure that practices such as credit-sharing are equitable.