Is a change going to come?: Incoming Gen Z attorneys are interested in action, not plans
Ryan Whitacre, before becoming a partner at Bridge Partners, spent his time as an attorney routinely volunteering — either on his own or at the encouragement of others — for various diversity and multicultural committees.
Eventually, he stopped going and turned down invites to join such efforts. He realized that he would only see the same underrepresented lawyers showing up to advocate on their behalf. It was the same attorneys of color and LGBTQ attorneys, not straight white men. At some point, Whitacre realized the diversity and inclusion problem law firms had wasn’t the fault of the diverse staffers who sought to solve the problem. It was because they didn’t quite have the power to effect real change, he said.
But former police officer Derek Chauvin suffocated George Floyd with his knee in Minneapolis, and the viral video of Floyd’s murder reignited a nationwide discussion on race and policing. And with that shockwave came several calls from straight white male managing partners in the Chicago area seeking Whitacre’s help in May and June of last year. They called Whitacre with a sense of guilt and some fairly basic questions about what to do about their firm now that they had suddenly become aware their firms had a diversity problem, he said.
“I’m somewhat hopeful given the conversations that I had in the past year, that at least there are some eyes and ears open,” Whitacre said. But, he adds with a hint of caution, “Let’s wait to see the numbers next year to see if there’s any meaningful change.”
The compounding effect of police killings of Black and Latinx people, anti-Asian hate crimes and anti-trans violence and legislation has catalyzed law firms to examine the effectiveness of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Findings from Chicago Lawyer magazine’s annual diversity survey indicated that representation of gender, race and sexuality among Chicago’s self-reporting top 100 firms have remained largely unchanged or have declined.
In response to the ongoing local and national social justice dialogue, law firms have introduced various new initiatives to support employees from marginalized backgrounds and attract new employees from underrepresented groups. But if law firms fail to cultivate a diverse talent base, they risk becoming obsolete as employees and clients push for multicultural representation, sources said.
Diversity is the mandate
Law firms that fail to diversify their staff will not only lose out on future talent, but they could alienate corporate clients that increasingly seek diverse representation.
As Gen Z employees enter the workforce, they are not interested in employers’ long-term plans for diversity, equity and inclusion, and want to see their employers take action in the short-term, according to Seyfarth Shaw Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer Kori Carew. She also noted that younger employees are scheduling meetings with their managers and bosses to discuss the firm’s anti-racism efforts.
When recruiting staff from underrepresented backgrounds, it’s especially important to treat current diverse staffers well, because so much of hiring staff of different backgrounds depends largely on word of mouth, said Ray Koenig III, the member in charge of Clark Hill’s Chicago office and co-leader of its litigation practice group. Reflecting on his experiences, Koenig, who chairs the firm’s Pride Group, said LGBTQ+ candidates will likely ask one another about whether a firm has inclusive policies that support them. Having those in place within the law firm enables leaders to speak positively about the firm’s work culture.
“Being one of the more visible LGBTQ leaders in our firm, of course, but also in the Chicago legal world, I’ve been able to get out there and talk about what our firm does and how our firms welcome and how our firm is inclusive,” Koenig said.
Law firms must become more diverse in response to a changing landscape. Attorneys from underrepresented backgrounds are becoming in-house counsel and executives at corporate clients as consumers and markets become more diverse, Carew said. As corporate clients hire and promote executive leaders from underrepresented backgrounds and become more diversified, they are demanding that diverse attorneys handle and receive credit for their work, Jackson Lewis Principal Monica Khetarpal said. This is because they understand that power within a firm is associated with a book of business.
“If diversity, equity [and] inclusion is not a business imperative for law firms in Chicago, for law firms across the country, [and] for the corporations across the country — if it’s not a business imperative authentically — I don’t believe we’re going to have much of a business to speak of,” said Dawn Rosemond, a firm diversity partner at Barnes & Thornburg. “Our clients are asking for something more. They’re tired. We’re tired. Everyone’s tired of the numbers being the same.”
Rethinking recruitment and retention
In its Chicago office, Seyfarth Shaw is piloting stay interviews during which the firm asks its employees why they’ve stuck with the firm, Carew noted. Though the firm recently received its 13th consecutive perfect score in the annual Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, it also wanted to understand why the number of its diverse staffers had declined in the Second City office, the firm’s largest. Part of the reason, Carew noted, is a lot of their diverse attorneys moved in-house.
Last year, the firm implemented training on implicit bias within evaluations or feedback processes with the firm’s partners, Carew said. The next step, she said, is developing bias interrupters others at the firm can use before conducting an evaluation. Carew added the firm has consulted with Dr. Larry Richard, the founder of consulting firm Lawyer Brain, as part of its diversity efforts.
“Those are things that we’re doing to improve, to further diversify, to say, ‘OK, we’ve done some things well, but how can we take what we’ve done well and multiply it. And then how can we look at the things that we haven’t done well, understand why and retool our efforts,’” Carew said.
Though representation of diverse attorneys could improve at the associate ranks, law firms have particularly failed to diversify at the managing partner and equity partner roles, Whitacre said. Ultimately, law firms need to diversify their leadership ranks, because leaders from underrepresented backgrounds have the authority to make substantial change, he said.
For diverse talent to make a difference within their law firm, they have to be promoted to the upper ranks of that firm, but that can only happen if they are assigned quality work, Rosemond said. But to receive that quality work, she added, the partners within the firm must be mindful enough to recognize them, and clients must demand diversity from the firm.
To find the next generation of lawyers from diverse backgrounds, some firms and bar associations are tackling the inequities that prevent underrepresented groups from entering the legal profession in the first place.
Barnes & Thornburg launched its Pre-Law Scholars Program, which covers the cost of students’ LSATs and law school applications, to help alleviate the financial burdens of applying to law schools. Firms should engage with students as early as high school or middle school to persuade students who may not see themselves reflected in the profession or recognize it as a potential career path, Rosemond said.
Jackson Lewis piloted its REACH initiative in its Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and New York offices in February. It requires the firm to interview at least two lawyers from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds and work with local organizations to help find diverse applicants. That same month, the firm also launched its RISE program, providing mentorship and professional development for law clerks, new associates and associates with between two and six years of practice at the firm.
In Chicago, Khetarpal noted Jackson Lewis is encouraging its diverse attorneys who are involved in bar associations such as the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, Hispanic Bar Association of Illinois and Cook County Bar Association to promote job openings through those organizations.
“We encourage our attorneys to make sure that we are mentoring our associates and pulling them up through to promotion and making them again feel like they belong and they have a home at Jackson Lewis and that their individuality is valued here,” Khetarpal said. “Because that’s the bridge between diversity and inclusion. Neither one is enough on its own.
Reflecting on his own college experience, Whitacre said that though students who attend Ivy League universities may not be the best candidates, they likely receive more job offers than students at state universities, which illustrates bias.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Carew said large law firms generally tend to hold candidates of color to higher standards, but they will make exceptions for clearly qualified white applicants who may lack Ivy League degrees, high class rank or other credentials. To counteract this, Seyfarth Shaw recruits from diversity job fairs and colleges with diverse student bodies, she said.
“We don’t do that law school snobbery thing,” Carew said. “We can find great talent in many places… That’s something that we do as a firm that influences our hiring and how we gather people.”
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