Welcome to the LCLD INSIDER, our monthly newsletter. This publication is for you, and we 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 Member!
- Deadline Approaching to Become a Mentor for the Law School Mentoring Program
- ACT Now: Register for the LCLD Annual Meeting
- 2013 Fellow Sarah Harris Becomes General Counsel
- On-Demand Video Now Available: "Building Competitive Teams: Embracing Generational Diversity"
- UHG's Rx for Fellows: Sharp Focus, Strong Values, Positive Attitude
- Recent Leadership Lunches
- Slight Progress: An Update on Diversity of the Legal Profession
- In the News
Welcome, New Member!
Robert S. Insolia, Managing Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP.
Goodwin Procter is focused on its clients and its people. The law firm's mission is to be the firm of choice for clients across its chosen practice areas and to offer a workplace that develops, supports, values, and recognizes its people at every level of the firm. Goodwin Procter's culture and success have been built on shared core values that guide all of its decisions. These values--Client Service, Excellence, Collaboration, Innovation, Diversity, Merit, Respect, and Community--represent a common set of beliefs that stand above and apart from financial metrics when evaluating Goodwin Procter's success as a firm.
Deadline Approaching to Become a Mentor for the Law School Mentoring Program
The LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program is still in need of Mentor attorneys to be paired with diverse, first-year law student Mentees across the country. All attorneys employed by LCLD Member organizations are eligible to participate. Lawyers interested in serving as Mentors in the program for the upcoming academic year may register now through August 31, 2014.
If you have questions about the LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program, please contact Louise Bald at lbald@lcldnet.com or (804) 658-6019.
ACT Now: Register for the LCLD Annual Meeting
Register now for the Fifth Annual LCLD Membership Meeting, "ACT," on September 17-18, 2014. "Covering" experts Kenji Yoshino, a professor of constitutional law at the NYU School of Law, and Christie Smith, of Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion, will give a presentation on the topic, including aggregate results from LCLD Member organizations that have participated in the anonymous covering survey that was recently distributed. Covering is the tendency of individuals to manage or downplay their differences, often at a great cost to both themselves and their employers.
Additional speakers include Bob Nelson, Director of the American Bar Foundation, and Scott Westfahl, Faculty Director of Executive Education at Harvard Law School.
Please click here to register to attend the Annual Membership Meeting by Wednesday, September, 3, 2014, and to view the agenda and a list of attendees. If you have questions, please contact Jennifer Denton via jdenton@lcldnet.com or at 804.334.5366. We look forward to seeing you in Phoenix!
2013 Fellow Sarah Harris Becomes General Counsel
This month Sarah Harris became the General Counsel of Sikich LLP, a professional services firm specializing in accounting, technology, investment banking, and advisory services. Prior to her new role, Sarah was a Partner at LCLD Member law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP in Chicago, IL. Congratulations, Sarah!
On-Demand Video Now Available: "Building Competitive Teams: Embracing Generational Diversity"
Chris De Santis, a specialist in management and organizational behavior, presented "Building Competitive Teams: Embracing Generational Diversity," on Thursday, May 1, 2014. A recorded webcast of this three-hour CLE seminar is available now through April 30, 2015 for LCLD Members. We encourage you to share this programming within your organization to help educate others on how to build teams that incorporate generational diversity.
LCLD Member seminar panelists included Paul Jones, General Counsel and Secretary, Harley-Davidson; Genhi Givings Bailey, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, DLA Piper; and Gabe Martinez, Corporate Counsel, The Clorox Company.
For more information about this CLE seminar and viewing suggestions, click here.
For questions, please email Louise Bald, LCLD Program Manager.
UHG's Rx for Fellows: Sharp Focus, Strong Values, Positive Attitude
By Lori L. Lorenzo, LCLD Program Director
Helping people live healthier lives is the mission of UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune 25 health care company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. And as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Marianne Short told a room full of visiting LCLD Fellows, many of the same factors that contribute to human health also hold true for a successful legal career.
Like a good health care provider, Short went on to prescribe a three-point program for a healthy career, and urged the Fellows to consciously cultivate their own careers. First and foremost, she said, be genuine in all things, including in your professional relationships.
Second, never get too comfortable--if you do, it means you're not being challenged and probably aren't living up to your potential. Read more.
The next Learning Experience will be hosted by Altria's Denise Keane, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, and LCLD Board Member, and Kamran Khan, Assistant General Counsel. The event will take place October 15-16, 2014 in Richmond, VA. If you're interested in hosting a Learning Experience, please contact Stephanie Uzel.
LCLD Fellows who attended the UnitedHealth Group Learning Experience, pictured here at the Guthrie Theater pre-event dinner, hosted by Dorsey & Whitney LLP. (Photo by Sam Catanzaro of Dorsey & Whitney)
Recent Leadership Lunches
We'd like to thank our Members who have recently hosted and spoken at Leadership Lunches as part of the LCLD Fellows program: Darryl Bradford, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Exelon Corporation, and Philip Suse, Managing Partner, North America of Baker & McKenzie LLP. The lunch was hosted by Baker & McKenzie on August 25, 2014 in Chicago, IL.
We'd also like to thank Kate Adams, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Honeywell International, and Brad Butwin, Chair of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, in advance for hosting the upcoming Leadership Lunch on September 22, 2014 at the O'Melveny & Myers office in Manhattan, NY.
If you'd like to learn more about speaking at a Leadership Lunch, please contact Stephanie Uzel.
Slight Progress: An Update on Diversity of the Legal Profession
By Amena Ross, 2014 1L LCLD Scholar with MassMutual Financial Group
According to in-depth research done during my summer at MassMutual, I've found that the ranks of general counsel at Fortune 500 companies are experiencing a slight increase in the numbers of women and minorities in 2014, compared to similar totals for 2013. Please see the table below for details, and the attached document for full article and footnotes.
My analysis shows that a total of 106 Fortune 500 general counsel, or twenty-one percent, are women, while 46 of their general counsel, or ten percent, are diverse. While still lagging behind other professions, gender, and racial diversity of general counsel still exceeds that of equity partners at law firms. Read more.
Amena E. Ross (center) attends New York University School of Law, Class of 2016. A 1L LCLD Scholar, she worked this summer as a Summer Law Clerk at MassMutual Financial Group. (Photo by Joe Mahoney)
In the News
Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Microsoft Corporation, and Chair of the LCLD Board of Directors, was praised as the tech world's envoy in an article in The New York Times.
Stasia Kelly, Co-Managing Partner (Americas) at DLA Piper, and Secretary of the LCLD board, was recently honored by the American Bar Association (ABA) with a 2014 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. She received the award August 10, 2014 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, during the 2014 ABA Annual Meeting. Click here to watch a video of Stasia accepting the award.
Larry Thompson (left), Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of PepsiCo, Inc., and an LCLD Member, and Stasia Kelly (pictured above), Co-Managing Partner (Americas) at DLA Piper, and Secretary of the LCLD board, were featured in The National Law Journal's list of 2014 Governance, Risk & Compliance Trailblazers & Pioneers. This special report features career profiles on both.
Thomas Sager, retiring Senior Vice President and General Counsel at DuPont, and LCLD Member, was recently recognized by The American Lawyer as a "lifetime achiever" in his legal career. Corporate Counsel has also published a more in-depth interview with Tom about his contributions to the legal profession, including his advocacy for diversity.
Andrew Humphrey, LCLD Member and Managing Partner at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, recently wrote an article entitled, "The Case for the Private Practice of Law," in which he explained some of the benefits of working at a law firm, despite the negative press that law firms have been receiving lately. (Must be logged into LinkedIn.)
Inside Counsel has interviewed three people from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company who are affiliated with LCLD, about the importance of diversity in corporate law departments. They are Patricia Hatler (first row, left), Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer, and LCLD Member; Linda Lu (first row, center), Vice President and Chief Litigation Officer, and 2012 LCLD Fellow; and Sandra Rich (first row, right), Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, and LCLD Diversity Professional.
The article also includes the 2014 Inside Counsel R-3 100 List, which names 100 women who are ready to take on the role of general counsel in the next three years. The following four LCLD affiliates were named to the list:
- Angela Hilt (second row, left), The Clorox Company, 2012 LCLD Fellow and Diversity Professional
- Sandra Rich (first row, right), Nationwide Insurance, LCLD Diversity Professional
- Amy Sanford (second row, center), DaVita Healthcare Partners, 2013 LCLD Fellow
- Janet Saura (second row, right), Lowe's Companies, Inc., LCLD Diversity Professional
Yendelela Neely Anderson, Partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, and 2014 LCLD Fellow, was interviewed in the Daily Report as part of being named on of the publication's "40 Legal Rising Starts to Watch Under 40" in Georgia.
Wesley Bizzell, Assistant General Counsel at Altria Client Services, Inc., and 2014 LCLD Fellow, was interviewed about Corporate Political Activity and Compliance as part of the NYSE Governance Services' Inside Compliance and Ethics Video Series.
Lorraine Mullings Campos, a Partner and 2012 Fellow at Reed Smith LLP, made the case for gender diversity at law firms in an article in The National Law Journal. The article also highlights Reed Smith's Washington, D.C. office for having one of the highest ratios of gender diversity among law offices in the D.C. metro area.
2014 LCLD Fellows Divesh Gupta, Assistant General Counsel at Exelon Business Services Corporation, and Michelle Lipkowitz, Partner at Saul Ewing LLP, were recently featured in an article about the partnership between Exelon and Saul Ewing to support the Summer Legal Institute in Washington. This program, launched by Chicago-based Just The Beginning--A Pipeline Organization, "gives students from lower-income communities and under-represented groups a hands-on introduction to the legal profession."
Sara Lachman, Equity Partner at Miller Johnson, and 2012 LCLD Fellow, was honored by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as one of the "2014 Women in the Law." Read the firm's press release on her honor by clicking here.
Tiffani Lee, a Diversity Partner at Holland & Knight LLP, and a 2012 LCLD Fellow, was interviewed for an informative article in the Miami Herald about overcoming challenges to fostering diversity in law firms.
Jamila Mensah, Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, and 2014 Fellow, was named by National Bar Association Vice President J. Goodwille Pierre and I10 Media as one of the "Texas Black Lawyers 40 Under 40 Stars on the Rise" at an event on July 17, 2014 in Houston, TX. "The award recognizes up and coming professionals, and is designed to honor individuals of diverse backgrounds who have made positive contributions to their profession and community."
Anthony Sharett, a Partner at Bricker & Eckler LLP, and a 2013 LCLD Fellow, was interviewed a part of being selected as one of Columbus Business First's 2014 "20 People to Know in Finance." He will also receive a 2014 Multicultural Leadership Award at the National Diversity Council's 7th Annual Ohio Diversity and Leadership Conference on October 30, 2014 in Columbus, Ohio.
Bill Simonitsch, a Partner at K&L Gates LLP, 2013 LCLD Fellow, and President of the National Asia Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), recently authored an op-ed piece about racial distrust and current events in Ferguson, MO.
Rivero Mestre LLP has been honored with Chevron Law Function's Law Firm Diversity Recognition Award. Both are LCLD Member organizations. The award recognizes Chevron's law firm partners that have distinguished themselves by demonstrating their commitment to diversity.
Chevron will donate $5,000 to a non-profit legal organization of Rivero Mestre's choice. Jorge Mestre, Rivero Mestre Managing Partner and LCLD Member, has informed LCLD that the firm plans to choose LCLD to receive the donation. Thank you, Chevron and Rivero Mestre!
LCLD Member firms Baker Botts L.L.P., Cooley LLP, Hogan Lovells US LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP were featured in an article that reports on the success of the pilot OnRamp Fellowship program, which was created in December 2013 to address the lack of women partners in law firms by replenishing the pipeline of mid- to senior-level women lawyers. Testimonials from pilot participants and plans for the second phase of the pilot (fall 2014) are also included.
Various LCLD Member organizations have recently been named to prominent diversity ranking lists, including Working Mother's "2014 Best Companies for Multicultural Women," Working Mother and Flex-time Lawyers "50 Best Law Firms for Women," The American Lawyer's LGBT "Diversity Scorecard," and Vault's 2015 "Best Law Firms for Diversity." Additionally, 18 LCLD Member corporations have been active in the successful Inclusion Initiative. Please click here to view the list of LCLD Member organizations that have been recognized.
If you have any news or honors that are relevant to LCLD Members, please email Jessica Smith.
