To All LCLD Members:

Last October, the LCLD Board of Directors launched Leaders at the Front, a groundbreaking initiative designed to extend the gains we have made in our talent development programs to our member organizations, with the goal of creating enduring organizational change within our law firms and companies.

As a first step, we challenged you, the leaders of LCLD, to create a pledge detailing the specific actions – both personal and organizational – that you committed to take in order to advance diverse lawyers within your organizations. More than 100 LCLD Members have answered the call by publishing their pledges on our website over the past year.

That’s a good start, but we need to build on that momentum by bringing all of our members to the Front.

To that end, the Board has decided that all Members of LCLD must submit a public pledge as a condition of membership by June 1, 2022. Our goal is to reach full member participation next year.

These pledges will replace the LCLD Member Commitment Statement with a plan that is actionable, measurable and sustainable. Together, we will work to hold ourselves accountable: to implement the commitments we've made publicly and that we are confident will advance and enhance the experience of the diverse talent in our organizations and beyond.

If you haven’t done so already, I urge you to attend a half-day virtual Leadership Summit co-hosted by Robert Grey and David Wilkins of Harvard Law School.  Participation in the Summit sessions has proved very helpful to our Members in both drafting and refining their pledges and related commitments. We have a Leadership Summit scheduled for December 1, 2021. Space is limited, so register today.

The Leaders at the Front portal on our website provides guidance about how to create your pledge and examples of the commitments made by other LCLD Members.  We'll also have a special session featuring Member MPs and GCs at this year’s Annual meeting to assist you in drafting your pledge.

Thank you in advance for your enthusiastic participation — and for your steadfast commitment to LCLD’s mission.

Sincerely,

Ellen Dwyer, Chair

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity