Our 2022 ELM Amplify session “Working together to improve diversity and move past the rhetoric” featured an engaging and informative discussion about applying diversity goals within the legal department’s work. We were joined by two legal leaders with a great deal of experience implementing and running diversity programs within the legal function: Tina Jones, VP & Senior Product Owner - Legal Solutions at JP Morgan, and Maitane Arozena, Global Legal Solutions O&T Director at Citi.
Our experts offered helpful advice on several aspects of meeting diversity goals in the corporate legal space.
Gathering data
- Reach out to your firms and ensure you are collecting the diversity data you need to be able to meet your diversity goals, which could include staffing matters in a diverse way, as well as driving diversity at outside counsel firms.
- Sending consent forms to law firms can help. One panelist found that 85% to 90% of firms agreed to provide detailed timekeeper diversity data. They now have diversity data on nearly 7,000 timekeepers in their ELM system.
- Staff a team of people to continuously check on diversity information gathered and call firms to follow up where data is missing. This is important enough to warrant staff time because the data is the foundation of all your outside counsel diversity efforts.
- Talk to law firms about your diversity goals and how they can support them. If possible, you should look for ways to not only collect data but also motivate firms to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Making the cultural shift
- Get senior management engaged so they can communicate the importance of a data-driven, diversity-focused approach. They set the organizational goals and priorities, so their involvement is key.
- Let your in-house attorneys know that diversity is a priority. Simply sending work to a particular outside counsel lawyer or firm because they have done so in the past is no longer sufficient. Communicate that the company accepts it may take longer or a little more spend to get some matters closed with new outside counsel staffing that meets diversity goals.
- Find ways to support in-house attorneys who engage new outside counsel to improve diversity. Give them information about attorneys from diverse backgrounds who have delivered in the past. Provide training for new firms. Steps like these will make it easier for legal department lawyers to take a chance on a new firm or attorney.
Manual data collection vs. an automated tool
- Manually maintained Excel spreadsheets are prone to error and cannot provide granular details about diversity, such as use of timekeepers from diverse backgrounds by amount of time billed. For advanced diversity-related analysis, use a tool such as ELM Solutions’ TyMetrix® 360° Diversity module.
- Choose a tool that can both report on progress toward your organization’s diversity goals and provide relevant outside counsel diversity information to staff when they make matter assignment decisions.
- Diversity goals should focus not only on the diversity profile of an outside counsel firm but also on how matters are actually staffed. A robust diversity tool is the most efficient way together these metrics.
For those just starting diversity initiatives
- Start by interviewing the stakeholders. Ask your attorneys how they are making their assignments. Ask law firms whether they have diversity data and are willing to report it. If not, ask why and find out how you can help them change that policy.
- Get the technology tools you will need to report on your progress and success.
- Establish diversity goals early and leave room for them to evolve over time.
- If you have an RFP program, include diversity as one of the areas that you take into consideration when choosing firms.
- Understand that the responsibility of improving diversity belongs to the entire legal team and should not be assigned in greater proportion to your own staff members from diverse backgrounds.
