As the Fourth Annual LCLD Membership Meeting draws near, LCLD is excited to share this special edition of the LCLD INSIDER with you. In this issue, you will find in-depth articles about outcomes from recent LCLD events, a feature on the the role that diversity has played in the career of one of our Members, and an article highlighting three Fellows Program alumnae who have been identified by InsideCounsel as ready to become general counsel in three years. We continue to welcome your feedback and ideas, as well as any news you might be interested in passing along. Please share the INSIDER with your support staff, diversity directors, and marketing departments to keep them better informed about what LCLD is doing.
-Robert Grey, Executive Director
In This Issue:
- Welcome, New Members!
- LCLD Roundtable of Law School Deans, General Counsel, and Managing Partners Considers Campus Diversity Challenges: Ideas Put Forward for Consideration at LCLD Annual Membership Meeting
- United Airlines and Seyfarth Shaw Leadership Lunch
- 2013 Fellows Receive a Healthy Dose of Eli Lilly
- LCLD ACTION FIGURE: Meet Mike Harrington
- Three 2011 Fellows "Make the Cut" for the R-3 100 List
- Call for Mentors: 2013-2014 Mentoring Program
- In the News
Welcome, New Members!
Locke Lord LLP - Jerry K. Clements, Managing Partner
Poyner Spruill LLP - Joseph B. Dempster, Jr., Managing Partner
LCLD Roundtable of Law School Deans, General Counsel, and Managing Partners Considers Campus Diversity Challenges: Ideas Put Forward for Consideration at LCLD Annual Meeting
By Joe Slay, LCLD Communications Director
At the upcoming LCLD annual meeting in September and in the months following, LCLD's Pipeline Committee will be studying the observations and informal recommendations that came out of this summer's "Roundtable Discussion on Diversity in the Nation's Law Schools."
Hosted on June 19 by the University of Colorado School of Law, this was the first such conference of deans, general counsel, and managing partners to grapple with increasing diversity in the nation's law schools.
"This is a shared concern for all of us," said University of Colorado School of Law Dean Philip J. Weiser. "We have a lot of work to do to ensure that we're increasing the pipeline, supporting diverse students, and enabling them to thrive as legal professionals.
The 30 participants represented 12 law schools, 10 corporations, five law firms, and other legal industry and research professionals.
"This was an unusual gathering for me," said Joanne Epps, Dean of Temple University Law School. "I came to learn what some of the best practices are for increasing the number of diverse lawyers and in hopes that this group could increase the number of best practices."
"I heard new ideas." Read full article.
United Airlines and Seyfarth Shaw Leadership Lunch
By Jason DeJonker, 2013 LCLD Fellow
On August 1, 2013, United Airlines, Inc. and Seyfarth Shaw LLP hosted an LCLD Leadership Lunch at the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw. Bret Hart, the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of United, and J. Stephen Poor, the Managing Partner of Seyfarth Shaw, spoke for almost two hours to an audience of 21 current and past LCLD Fellows.
The discussion included skills and qualities that have helped both Hart and Poor to become successful, what it takes to succeed in a law firm or in-house environment, and stories about lessons learned and career turning points. Hart and Poor also discussed where law firms and legal departments are headed with respect to staffing, use of resources (particularly for in-house departments), and diversity and inclusion efforts. Specifically, they discussed changes that United and Seyfarth Shaw have made with diversity in mind, including talent models and mentoring programs.
Both Hart and Poor were very candid about their paths to success, their stumbling blocks along the way, what they have learned, and what they believe it takes to succeed as a diverse attorney in either an in-house or law firm position. Both gentlemen answered numerous questions posed by a very engaged audience. LCLD would like to thank United Airlines and Seyfarth Shaw for all their hard work and hospitality.
For more information about hosting a Leadership Lunch, please contact Louise Bald.
2013 Fellows Receive a Healthy Dose of Eli Lilly
By Don Belt, LCLD Communications
What began in 1876 as a small, family-owned drug store in Paris, Illinois, has grown to a $20-billion-dollar biotechnology company with offices in 17 countries and customers in every corner of the world. Corporations that size can be notoriously bland.
But this past June, when several dozen 2013 LCLD Fellows checked into Eli Lilly's Indianapolis headquarters for a Fellows Learning Experience, they found a company that prizes diversity as a catalyst for innovation, and a workplace so multicultural and diverse that 52 languages are spoken in the company cafeteria.
"Eli Lilly and Company thrives on innovation-new ideas, scientific breakthroughs, bold solutions-so for us diversity is a major business imperative," Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Harrington told the visiting Fellows. "We need people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, who can solve problems in new and different ways. Someone's going to find a cure for cancer, and we want them to be working at Eli Lilly. It really doesn't matter what they look like."
With Harrington, an LCLD Member, as their host, the Fellows were given a rare look inside Lilly's corporate playbook via in-depth briefings, panel discussions, and presentations, along with a VIP tour of company headquarters. Read full article.
LCLD ACTION FIGURE: Meet Mike Harrington
By Don Belt, LCLD Communications
The man who hosted the 2013 LCLD Fellows at Eli Lilly once ruled Asia.
That is, in the 1990s LCLD Member Mike Harrington was personally responsible for Eli Lilly's legal operations from Pakistan to China to Indonesia to New Zealand-all from an office in downtown Singapore.
That experience "completely transformed my view of diversity," he says. "Singapore was this ancient crossroads of trade and a cultural melting pot, where we could sit in our apartment and hear 40 languages being spoken all around us. It was incredible."
And when he moved his family to New Zealand, they experienced what it was like to be in the minority, as the few Americans among native Kiwis including the indigenous Maori. "There were huge cultural differences there. The sense of isolation we felt gave me a new appreciation for the importance of inclusion." Read full article.
Three 2011 LCLD Fellows "Make the Cut" for the R-3 100 List
By Cassandra H.M. Headrick, 2012 LCLD Fellow, and Courtney Nolde, LCLD Program Manager
In early August, InsideCounsel named three of LCLD's 2011 Fellows to its "R-3 100 List" of women likely be ready to become general counsel within three years. The R-3 100 List is new this year and promotes gender equality within the legal profession. InsideCounsel reported that they "hope the R-3 100 list will raise awareness of the talent pool, so that in-house women can recognize their peers, and GCs and recruiters have a reference to aid their searches for new general counsel."
Qualifying candidates all had to be direct reports to their general counsel, and they were required to manage anywhere from three to four lawyers. "Business maturity" was another buzzword used in the selection process: candidates were all expected to "speak the language of the business," have proven leadership skills, and know how to evaluate risk, among many other qualities.
Margaret Chase, Laura Chenoweth, and Raquel Tamez are no exception to these qualifications. All three LCLD Fellows have extremely impressive titles and credentials. Read full article.
Call for Mentors: 2013-2014 Mentoring Program
The LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program still has Mentor openings for attorneys from LCLD Member organizations. The program is active in more than 30 citiesand we encourage you and members of your organization to get involved in the upcoming program, which will launch in the fall of 2013. To enroll as a Mentor or to enroll Mentors from your organization, please visit the attorney enrollment page.. If you have questions about the program or about enrollment, please contact Sarah Wintle.
In the News
The American Lawyer highlighted the following LCLD Members as some of their "Top 50 Innovators": Ralph Baxter, Chairman Emeritus of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; David Boies, Chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Peter Kalis, LCLD Board Member and Chairman and Global Managing Partner of K&L Gates; Roderick Palmore, LCLD Founding Chair Emeritus and EVP, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Risk Management Officer and Secretary of General Mills Inc.; and Thomas L. Sager, SVP and General Counsel of DuPont. These leaders were recognized as drivers of the ideas and initiatives that have changed the world of big law over the past 50 years.
Paul Aguggia, LCLD Member and Chair of Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton discussed the firm's innovative "department attorney" positions in an article in Daily Report. The department attorney position offers reduced hours without the demand of the partnership track. These positions are different from staff attorney or contract attorney roles in that department attorneys are members of a practice-group team and do the same work as traditional associates. The position may also allow for more ease in transitioning back to the partnership track in the future.
Fred McClure, Managing Partner of the Tampa office of LCLD Member firm DLA Piper, recently authored an article in Corporate Counsel about the state of diversity in the pipeline of the legal profession.
Mark D. Roellig, EVP and General Counsel of MassMutual Life Insurance Co. was honored by the National Bar Association Corporate Leadership Forum with the 2013 Pinnacle Award for Leadership and Courage.
Twenty LCLD Member law firms were ranked in the top 25 of Vault's 2014 Law Firm Diversity Awards in five categories. Additionally, Member firm Carlton Fields was ranked#1 five years in a row in the categories of "Overall Diversity," "Diversity for Women," and "Diversity for Minorities."
LCLD Member organizations McGuireWoods (Baltimore office) and Exelon Corp.were featured in Virginia Lawyers Weekly for the joint law firm and in-house internship completed by Whitney Pulliam, a 1L LCLD Scholar from Washington and Lee University School of Law.
The Association of Diversity Councils has honored the Prudential Logo Law, Compliance, Business Ethics, and External Affairs department of LCLD Member corporation Prudential Financial for having one of the Top 25 U.S. Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Councils in the nation and for driving diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
