Members gather at a committee meeting during the first LCLD Annual Membership Meeting on October 7-8, 2010. (Photo by Joe Mahoney)
A summary of LCLD's first Annual Meeting, from a press release describing the event:
Washington, DC — A "sold-out" conference of general counsel and managing partners launched four strategic initiatives at the first meeting of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity in Washington, D.C. Oct. 7-8, convened to advance diversity in the legal profession.
"It is the task of this generation in the law," said LCLD Chair Rick Palmore, GC of General Mills, "to take the baton and win this leg of the race."
Palmore is the author of the 2004 "Call to Action" and a founder of the one-year-old LCLD. Attendance was expected to be 175 at the conference. The final tally was 210. The conference was titled "OPEN," with the four letters standing for "Obligation, Power, Engagement, Now".
"This attendance level is hard evidence of the importance that the leaders of the preeminent legal organizations in the country assign to this task of advancing legal diversity," said LCLD Executive Director Robert J. Grey Jr., former president of the American Bar Association. "The attendance is especially noteworthy, " he said, "since GCs and MPs themselves had to be in attendance and could not send substitutes. In fact, we were very strict in enforcing that."
In addition to hearing addresses on legal diversity from U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Harvard Professor David Wilkins—and a special video message from attorney and civil rights pioneer Vernon Jordan—the attendees formed "shirt-sleeve" working sessions to hammer out details of LCLD's four strategic initiatives.
The first strategic initiative will be a year-long "Fellows" program, to launch in February 2011 that was introduced by Talent Development committee chair Greg Jordan, Managing Partner of ReedSmith law firm. That program will provide leadership, relationship-building, and networking training in addition to unprecedented access to GCs and MPs for high-potential attorneys of diverse backgrounds.
Allstate General Counsel Michele Mayes described a second LCLD Strategic Partnerships initiative designed to encourage wider use of "diversity secondments", which will give diverse attorneys exposure to leaders of client organizations through assignments lasting up to six months. Mayes' committee also explored ways to adapt the National Football League's "Rooney Rule," which requires interviewing of individuals of diverse background for senior positions.
A Benchmark committee, led by Fannie Mae General Counsel Tim Mayopoulos, is developing new metrics designed to "get behind the numbers" that measure diversity in legal organizations. The committee's research process will include both the collection of quantitative data and in-depth interviews with GCs and MPs of LCLD member organizations.
Microsoft GC Brad Smith presented plans from the LCLD Pipeline Committee that focus on strategies to increase the numbers of diverse students who choose law school and move on to careers in the law. The committee also considering ways to provide "connective tissue" for the legal pipeline which was described as "broken" at key points.
"I was excited by the energy and enthusiasm at this meeting," said Clorox General Counsel Laura Stein. "And it's important that we're developing specific strategies to attack this issue."
