3 minute read
A Year of Transformation
Introduction by:
Diversity and Inclusion Committee Co-Chairs
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Dawn R. Rosemond, Partner, Director of Diversity, Professional Development and Inclusion
Robert T. Grand, Firm Managing Partner
Someone recently asked me to describe 2018 relative to our diversity and inclusion platform in one word. Without a moment’s hesitation I declared, “Transformative.”
According to dictionary.com, “transformative” means “1. to change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphose; 2. to change in condition, nature, or character; convert.”
What it doesn’t mean perhaps best affirms why I made such a bold declaration, as the converse of this grand word is “ordinary,” “everyday,” and “uneventful.” Our 2018 was certainly none of those things.
– Robin Sharma
Instead (and just by way of example), in the past 12 months we saw marked growth of women and minority representation in our partnership ranks. We also launched a new breed of firmwide diversity and inclusion training, utilizing an in-person, market-by-market approach to foster interaction and elevate consciousness, all to the end of better tackling the dangers of implicit bias.
To better care for our talent, we created a new professional development program called VISION that includes a deliberate sponsorship initiative we’ve coined Project Keymaker. It’s a funny name, we know. But we are quite serious about doing whatever it takes to make sure that our teammates don’t fall through the cracks, especially relative to our women and minority talent. Retention is a problem in our industry (in particular, relative to diverse practitioners), because folks become detached and oftentimes invisible. Project Keymaker was specifically designed to help us address this. And then there was the overhaul of our parental leave benefits policy. By unanimous vote, the firm’s Management Committee approved a recommendation put forth by our Women’s Initiative Task Force to establish a “one for all” policy affording ALL of our talent (lawyers and non-lawyer professionals alike), 16 weeks of paid leave at 100% pay, inclusive of adoptions; the policy went into effect Jan. 1, 2019. I struggle to identify a moment in 2018 that made me more proud.
Indeed, I think this change best embodies why “transformative” is the only descriptor that came to my mind when asked to define the last year. That is, while the approval of the parental leave benefits overhaul literally moved me to tears, there is a common thread throughout all that we were able to accomplish: each stride made (those mentioned above and what you will experience in the pages to come), inure to the benefit of our core and reflect a deliberate decision by our leadership to invest in change that goes well beyond a mere “box check” – and will endure.
Without question (and as I say all the time), there is so much more to do. This important work does not actually end. It simply evolves. The accounts in this publication of some of our proud moments from last year are not meant to suggest otherwise. Indeed, I can hear my mother saying that, “It’s a poor frog that praises their own pond.” Since I’m still just a little bit scared of her, I wouldn’t dare go too far here. But there’s an old saying from another wise philosopher (Oprah) that is apropos here: “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
So we are taking this opportunity to celebrate and enjoy some of the key “life” moments of Barnes & Thornburg in 2018. We (Bob and I), hope you enjoy this journey of reflection with us and that you reach out to unpack and learn more about anything you see, who we are, our platform and/or where we’re going from here. I can guarantee you, we’re just getting started!
Enjoy!
