Vandana Venkatesh
Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer — Verizon
I, Vandana Venkatesh, personally commit to the following:
Personal Commitment
- 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 ensure that our US legal function is diverse throughout all levels.
- I will review on a quarterly basis the diversity metrics for all new hires and promotions within my department.
- I will lead and participate in department DE&I events throughout the year.
Organizational Commitment
- We will require diversity in succession planning for internal legal leadership positions.
- We will ensure that interviewers have an understanding of the business need for diverse talent.
- We will award legal matters to outside firms based in part on the diversity of the lawyers who will perform the work.
- We will require all US outside counsel to provide gender and race information on all timekeepers who perform work for us so that we can track the percentage of hours of work done for us by diverse lawyers.