Compiled for the LCLD Board of Directors every Wednesday, this digest is designed to brief you on the latest headlines about LCLD Members and organizations, as well as thought-provoking articles on diversity in the legal profession, talent development, mentoring, and leadership. Past issues of the Digest are also archived on the LCLD web site.
If you have questions about the Digest, articles you'd like to share, of if you would like to subscribe, please email Caitlin Puffenberger at cpuffenberger@lcldnet.com.
1. Q&A with LCLD's Lori Lorenzo: Engage Leadership to Improve Diversity and Inclusion
Thomson Reuters, 8/2/16
LCLD Program Director Lori Lorenzo discussed LCLD’s important work with Thomson Reuters’ Transforming Women’s Leadership in the Law. Lorenzo talked about LCLD’s method – engaging leaders and training diverse talent to be future leaders – as well as the success of LCLD’s programs, displayed in particular through the success of many Fellows Alumni. “The legal profession is experiencing change; and, although we aren’t as far along in diversity and inclusion work as we’d like to be, LCLD is focused on the opportunities that the change will provide,” she said. “One such opportunity is to position diverse talent to take on positions of leadership.”
2. At Coke Event, a Push for ‘Diversity 3.0’
Daily Report, 7/28/16
Bernhard Goepelt, LCLD Member and General Counsel of The Coca-Cola Co., hosted more than 100 attorneys at Legal Diversity Link, an event focused on connecting the company’s law department with minority- and women-owned law firms in the Atlanta area. Goepelt discussed Coke’s progress with diversity in the last few years – 10 percent of the company’s legal spending budget goes to women- and minority-owned firms, and 32 percent of their lawyers are diverse – but he said there is still a long way to go. “Diversity 3.0” will be “when I don’t need to share the statistics with you, because this is all about a truly global perspective where diversity is not only about form but is fully about substance.”
3. Op-Ed: Diverse Attorneys Need Mentors and Sponsors Too
Bloomberg BNA, 7/29/16
Yvette Gatling, 2012 Fellow and Shareholder at Littler Mendelson, P.C., writes that mentoring and sponsorship are crucial for minority and women lawyers. “While some of the responsibility for minority retention falls on law firms, we as diverse attorneys also need to seek out those relationships to ensure our own professional longevity and success,” she said. Gatling suggests developing informal mentoring relationships – asking a rainmaker out to lunch, for example – as well as finding a person in a leadership position, even if s/he is not diverse, who can be a vocal advocate.
4. WVU Law School Joins Leadership Council on Legal Diversity to Create Opportunity
West Virginia Record, 7/27/16
The West Virginia College of Law is partnering with the LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program, and sees the partnership as beneficial for the future success of its law students, but for a unique reason. “In a state where there are relatively small traditional minority populations, the LCLD program is broad enough to also include law students from Appalachia.”
5. Women in Charge: A New Record?
Politico Magazine, 7/30/16
By January 2017, women may lead a record-high 21 countries, as well as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Health Organization. Research shows that women leaders are more inclined toward collaboration, often more effective at peace-building and post-conflict negotiations, and draw attention to more diversity policy issues. Yet even 21 female heads of state is far from the 20-30 percent needed for significant influence. “Without structural changes to the ways in which women are recruited into politics—whether parliamentary quotas or more equitable funding regulations—women are likely to continue to lag behind men when it comes to running for office.”
6. Report Shows GCs Gaining Boardroom Influence
Corporate Counsel, 7/27/16
Eighty-two percent of general counsel say their influence within their organizations is “strong” or “very strong,” up from 60 percent five years ago, according to a recent survey from Nabarro. Despite this growth in influence, only 48 percent of GCs are part of the executive teams at their organizations, and many reported obstacles to their career development.
