® May/June 2013
A N A C A DE M IC
SECOND ACT LAWYERS TURNED COLLEGE PRESIDENTS PAGE 20
THE PIPELINE PROBLEM PAGE 28
MCCA’S LLOYD M. JOHNSON JR. SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
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May/June 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
p.28
The law pipeline has a major leak.
FEATURES 20 AN ACADEMIC SECOND ACT: LAWYERS TURNED COLLEGE PRESIDENTS Universities are hiring career lawyers as presidents to steer schools through challenging times. Faced with budget crises, rising tuition, and new technology, lawyers will leverage their skills in a new arena to help students navigate the intricacies of academia. BY LYDIA LUM
28 The Pipeline Problem Law schools are facing a crisis. The drop in enrollment is forcing them to adapt—or go out of business. There’s no evidence that the sharp drop in law school numbers has hit minorities disproportionately hard, but diversity leaders are keeping a wary eye on the numbers. BY LEK AN OGUNTOYINBO
32 The Right Tools MCCA’s Lloyd M. Johnson Jr. Scholarship Program The decision to pursue legal education has never weighed as heavily as it does today. MCCA’s scholarship program is designed to alleviate that weight. Learn more about the ways MCCA is helping law students pursue their dreams. BY BRIAN DABBS
VISIT WWW.MCCA.COM FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS, AWARDS, AND RESEARCH.
MCCA® Board Of Directors Vernon G. Baker II Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Meritor, Inc.
Samuel M. Reeves Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Walmart U.S. Legal
Michelle Banks Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer, Gap, Inc.
Carlos Rincon Partner, Rincon Law Group, P.C.
Clarissa Cerda Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, LifeLock, Inc. A. B. Cruz III Former Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. Anthony K. Greene Director, Jamison Insurance Group Gary F. Kennedy Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, American Airlines, Inc.
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Eli Lilly’s former GC relishes her new role as president of Mills College.
Don H. Liu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, & Secretary, Xerox Corporation Hinton J. Lucas Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, DuPont Company Robbie E. B. Narcisse Vice President-Global Ethics & Business Practices, Pitney Bowes Inc.
COLUMNS 8 Notes from the President & CEO 10 Perseverance in Profile Highlighting the contributions and talents of attorneys with disabilities.
DEPARTMENTS 40 Association Focus Don Bosco Cristo Rey BY BRIAN DABBS
42 Diversity News
Diversity As Strategy
Andrew Imparato
BY SHERYL AXELROD
BY TOM CALARCO
48 In Closing…
13 Lawyer’s Lantern
Offering illuminating professional guidance for your career.
A Conversation with Billy Martin
18 Spotlighting
An Interview with Paul Loh BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS
50 Movers & Shakers BY JOSHUA H . SHIELDS
Kathleen Ambrose BY PATRICK FOLLIARD
2013 STRATEGIC DIVERSITY SPONSORS
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Notes
From the President & CEO
A MENTOR IS AN INVALUABLE PART OF YOUR EDUCATION DIVERSITY & THE BAR’S EDUCATION ISSUE SHOWS THAT PEOPLE NEVER STOP LEARNING. Lawyers move on to new careers, law
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schools adapt to challenging times, and every year another corps of bright young students matriculates into law school and, hopefully, the legal workforce. No matter where you are in your career, it is valuable to have a mentor. Even as seasoned attorneys retire they often call their mentors for advice on retirement. It is an evergreen relationship. One of my mentors, Vernon Jordan, advises me on more issues than you can imagine. I am also fortunate to pay it back to younger law students and attorneys. There is no formula for being a good mentee, but I wanted to share some thoughts on what a mentor expects from a mentee. 1. The “goldilocks” style of periodic contact is the best approach. Don’t reach out too often, or too much, but every once in a while. 2. Express interest in the mentor’s life and career before asking for help. A simple “How are you?” or “Congratulations on the new job” can go a long way. 3. Make reasonable requests. “Can you help me get an internship?” is reasonable. “Can you hire me?” is not. 4. Follow through. I don’t want to expend my time and political capital on someone who won’t capitalize on the opportunity. 5. Report back on how it worked out. I’m curious! 6. Always say “Thank you.” You’d be surprised how many people forget this simple step.
7. Keep the email chain intact. By stacking emails I am immediately oriented as to who you are and where we stand. 8. Establish a track record. There should be a mutual third party who can vouch for your work. 9. Do your homework. Check out the internship or firms where you want to work before asking for help. 10. Take the first step. The most important thing that you can do is go up to your potential mentor and strike up a conversation. Who knows where it can lead? Most successful lawyers have had mentors and are eager to return the favor. I hope you enjoy this issue on education and can use it to further your career, wherever you may be. JOSEPH K. WEST
President & CEO MCCA_law
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Perseverance in Profile
ANDREW IMPARATO: SPOKESPERSON FOR THE DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT BY TOM CALARCO
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Andy Imparato is bipolar, and he’s not shy about admitting it. A self-described second-generation disability rights advocate, Imparato says he’s lucky to have found the movement. It’s debatable which of the two is luckier for the discovery. “Just be open about it,” he says, when asked how he copes with his depression. “I’ve been encouraged throughout my career to be very open about it, to talk about it in all my speeches.”
DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
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s the former president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest cross-disability rights organization in the U.S., Imparato made numerous encouraging speeches to others with disabilities. Today, he fights for their rights as the senior counsel and disability policy director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, headed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “People are always congratulating me for my role in passing the ADA,” Imparato says. “But they don’t realize that I was still in college when it was passed in 1990.” What Imparato did have was a significant role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments Act of 2008. The ADA was a revolutionary development in the struggle to provide equal access and opportunity to those with disabilities. It led to changes that are now commonplace: handicap parking, wheelchair ramps, sign language interpreters, and other guarantees for equal access, as well as protection against discrimination. MCCA.COM
Imparato had no idea that he was bipoloar during his formative years. “[Today] I would associate it with depression, but I didn’t have a word for it,” he says. “I thought it was like feelings of guilt.” Imparato’s mother was a fashion editor, and his father a publisher in Beverly Hills, Calif., and he entertained thoughts of becoming a journalist. But he decided on law after a summer in Rome studying the Italian Renaissance. At Stanford Law School, he became friends with a group of politically progressive classmates who wanted to change the world and inspired him to go into public interest law. During his second year of law school he experienced his first episode of depression, leading to a clinical diagnosis. That episode was, he says, perhaps his worst. “It all happened very quickly. I had trouble getting out of bed and very little self-esteem,” he says.
He’s a living example of how those with depression can have very successful and productive careers. “I’ve been blessed by the fact that it’s a relatively predictable thing,” he says. “I have a lot of energy, a lot of self-confidence, not a lot of patience, for about five or six months, and then when I’m depressed I don’t have much energy or self-confidence.” Though not averse to using medication to treat depression, he says it hasn’t worked for him. “The way I have managed it is having work that is fulfilling,” he says, describing his work as his strongest antidepressant. “Feeling that I can make a difference for someone else, that helps me know I’m not as worthless as I feel when I’m depressed. Work also creates an outlet that I can put the high energy into something productive.” After law school, he moved to Boston in 1990 where he became involved in the disability rights
movement as a staff attorney for the Disability Law Center, Inc., advocating for children and adults with disabilities and educating individuals, families, and disability groups about their rights under public benefit programs. After two years at the Disability Law Center, Imparato moved to the nation’s capital and did his first stint as a legislative counselor for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, where Sen. Harkin was chairman of the subcommittee on disability policy. Imparato followed that with positions at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Council on Disability as a legal adviser for disability issues. In 1999, Imparato took the helm of AAPD, founded four years earlier to “unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including our families, friends, and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the
Hot JOBS
Hot Jobs Email Blast -- MCCA is pleased to send out an email blast of Hot Job announcements to our network on the last Friday of every month. As an exclusive membership benefit, MCCA member companies, and MCCA FAN law firms, wishing to advertise their open positions to our diverse network may participate in MCCA’s Hot Jobs email blast. This service is provided in addition to the MCCA Job Bank, which allows users to post job announcements online to the MCCA website. Members, who would like to submit a job announcement to be included in the MCCA Hot Jobs email blast, should email Connie Swindell-Harding, Regional Coordinator, Southeast Region, at connieharding@mcca.com to receive the requisite form. All forms must be submitted by 5:00 pm EST on the 20th of the month before the listings are to be sent. Interested in becoming a Member of MCCA or a Firm Affiliate Network law firm? Contact David Chu, Director of Membership, at davidchu@mcca.com or (202) 739-5906.
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limited the gains secured through the ADA. It led to suspending the rights of those with disabilities who, through medication or other means, were able to mitigate their disability and narrowly limited what might be considered as disabled under the law. An example is the case of a man with muscular dystrophy who couldn’t lift his arms over his shoulders and was discriminated against when trying to become an electrician, but whose disability claim was rejected because he could have sex with his wife. Imparato was part of the team to right this wrong. “We were all aware of the Supreme Court decision that had narrowed the scope of the protected class,” he says. “We thought that this was something we could build a bipartisan coalition to change.” Among them were Sheryl Sensenbrenner, a member of the board of the AAPD, whose husband is Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, and California Congressman Tony Coelho, an epileptic who sponsored the ADA. The Epilepsy Foundation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Resource Management, and the National Association of Manufacturers—a coalition that Imparato helped organize—joined in the fight. Rep. Sensenbrenner sponsored the ADA Restoration Act (which became the ADA Amendments Act), and Imparato testified in its favor before the House Education and Labor Committee. This followed a significant lobbying effort by disability rights advocates. Imparato had co-authored a paper with Claudia
One of my goals at AAPD was to make disability sexy so that people would want to be associated with that word.
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Americans with Disabilities Act. “One of my goals at AAPD was to make disability sexy,” Imparato says, “so that people would want to be associated with that word. It’s good to be proud of who you are as a person with disability. It’s a way to connect with other people and not something to be ashamed of; it’s a natural part of the human experience.” As the head man at AAPD, Imparato became one of the nation’s leading spokespersons for those with disabilities and was a speaker in demand. His key message: society’s low expectations for those with disabilities need to be changed. These attitudes are fostered by government welfare and disability programs and can be counterproductive, he believes. “Although people’s own expectations may naturally decrease with an adjustment to disability, policies and programs should help them sustain high expectations rather than reinforce broad societal messages that lower them.” The ADA has been instrumental in helping those with disabilities gain rights, but a number of subsequent Supreme Court decisions had severely DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
Center, who was profiled in the January/February issue of Diversity & the Bar, “Redefining ‘Disability’ Discrimination: A Proposal to Restore Civil Rights Protections for All Workers,” that appeared in the Stanford Law and Policy Review, which was part of this effort. The ADA Amendments Act was passed in 2008 and signed into law by President George W. Bush with the elder President Bush present. It was the only time they were together during the signing of a law, Imparato says. Imparato says he feels fortunate to be working for a movement from which he has personally benefited in providing support and understanding for his own disability. However, he believes that we still have a ways to go to guarantee fair treatment for those with disabilities. “More radical change is needed,” he says, “and many difficult challenges remain to be addressed. Leaders in business and government must recognize that this is an urgent issue for the country’s entire economy, not just an issue of providing more appropriate support for people with disabilities.” He advises those with friends or family who have disabilities not to protect them. “The key is to keep their expectations high, encourage them to want to have the same opportunities, not to be ashamed, that it’s okay to take risks and fail, to find out what’s possible.” Otherwise, he says, they may miss out on the opportunities that are available to them in life. In 2010, Imparato left the AAPD for his current position with the Senate health committee, chaired by Harkin. “I feel he’s the most effective advocate that the disability community has on the planet,” Imparato says, “and it’s an honor to work for him. I feel I can get more done here, and I have the luxury to focus on policy, which I love.” D&B Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Wildwood, Fla. MCCA.COM
Lawyer’s Lantern
A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY MARTIN BY JOSHUA SHIELDS
Billy Martin’s panel at the CLE Expo was a hit. If you missed it, read his interview with Diversity & the Bar magazine, published on pages 15–19.
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MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
2013 CLE EXPO SPECIAL FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW
BILLY MARTIN is cofounder of the law firm Martin & Gitner, PLLC. He spoke to Diversity & the Bar following the CLE Expo in San Diego and again in Washington, D.C. He answered questions about his career, the future of the legal practice, and offered tips to young attorneys. An excerpt of the interview follows:
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Clearly you work on crisis management issues. How did you develop those skills? It is something I enjoy doing. I have always been gifted with the ability to articulate my views, from an early age, in high school and college. My position as executive assistant U.S. attorney here in Washington helped when I was appointed as a media spokesperson. Before they hired a full-time media person, I was given the task of responding to press calls and meeting with the media and coming up with statements to make in response to major cases. Also, I was retained by NBC4 in Washington during the O.J. Simpson trial. I was on air throughout the trial, live on TV. I had the ability and the good virtue to have been trained by Jim Vance and a lot of the anchors at NBC4. What happened after the Simpson trial? I was hired on all the major cases in the media. I learned that I am a lawyer and what I do best is lawyer. I hired a very good PR firm to come up with and develop a message but I was still the spokesperson. If you look back on the trial of President Clinton, I was at times the spokesperson for Monica Lewinsky and her family. When intern Chandra Levy went missing in Washington I was frequently the person who would appear before the cameras for her family. On every major matter, even if the message was developed by one of the PR firms who we DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
work with, I am usually the person who will deliver that message in public. How do you manage to keep your personal feelings or emotions out of the situations? It’s an acquired skill. I have been practicing law now for almost 38 years, and in my early years I tended to become more emotionally involved in my cases. But I don’t think a lawyer can survive—emotionally, physically, and mentally, by taking on the burdens and emotions of their clients. You learn professionally to give them the best on every case that you have. When I was representing some of the major professional athletes, some of the NBA players would always tell me, “Leave everything you have on the floor, so when the game is over, you’re not questioning.” In my law practice I put everything into my court cases and leave it in the courtroom. When I walk out of that courtroom, emotionally I have done my best and I separate my life as a lawyer from my personal life. I have a family, and I try to make sure I don’t bring my legal issues home to my family because those are not my legal problems. How do you select clients or cases? I like to think it is the result of the good reputation and experience that we have in handling major matters. We are frequently called by people involved in major crises or other lawyers who want to add us to the
team. It is usually something very newsworthy and sometimes very controversial, and we will decide whether it is something we would be interested in. We usually assist people in a time of need. It’s not something where we feel we are sitting on a pedestal where we get to pick and choose people or those issues. We take on some controversial cases because we believe everybody is entitled to legal representation. Are there any cases or matters that you would turn down. If so, what are the criteria? I’m sure there is but I could not tell you in advance what that might be. Are there any high-profile cases handled by other defense teams that you thought you’d handle totally differently? There are. I probably know the lawyers on those matters and I would not want to criticize them openly. There are some recent matters that have appeared in the press where the client has given public interviews and after the interviews were given the client was criticized for statements made during the course of the interview. I don’t want to give the name of the client or the lawyers because it is an ongoing matter and I don’t think I should get in the middle of it. You’ve got to be very careful to allow your client to give public statements on the subject of the lawsuits because they will pick apart and parse MCCA.COM
every word and that’s very dangerous. My advice to clients is that you allow your lawyers to speak for you and if you don’t have to publicly give statements you should not because there are people waiting to take your deposition or investigators to charge you with perjury or obstruction of justice for your comments. I tell my clients, “If we don’t have to, you don’t have to make a public statement.” We represent a lot of politicians. Sometimes a politician has to respond to public matters but we caution them to be very careful not to address the merits of the lawsuit because people are waiting to judge every single word you give. If there was one person, one matter, one case, or one client that you could pick or represent throughout history, what or who would it be? I don’t know if there is one particular case that I could identify. There are a series of cases that were troubling to me throughout law school, and even today, when we deal with issues of discrimination, diversity, and inclusion. That was systemic exclusion of African Americans from basic rights as American citizens. You think back to the Plessy v. Ferguson case when blacks were denied access to public
accommodation. In answering that, I would like to say I’m creating some new creative legal argument but I would really have liked to have been at the elbow of Charles Hamilton Houston when he developed the use of the laws to combat discrimination and it was not until the later years, not during Plessy v. Ferguson, not during the Civil Rights cases, not until much later, around Brown v. Board of Education and some of the later era, that some of the theories and strategy of Charles Hamilton Houston was used to legally break down the barriers of discrimination. So I really would have liked to have been around when Mr. Houston came up with his brilliant legal theory and watched the laws and the implementation of the discrimination laws change. Recently several law firms have gone out of business. Do you have any observations on the changing dynamics of corporate law? I do. Law firms have gotten so large and they have corporations that are backing away from accepting traditional legal constructs of billing practices. I was a partner in big firms for almost 20 years and now the majority owner of my own law firm with my partner Jeffrey Gitner. We’re a small
Some of the NBA players would always tell me, “Leave everything you have on the floor, so when the game is over, you’re not questioning.” In my law practice I put everything into my court cases. MCCA.COM
firm—we have four lawyers—we all came from big law firms. I’ve had the ability to examine lawyers—first-year lawyers, second-year associates—and when I would try to bill research to a first-year lawyer and turn the bill into a corporate client the corporate client would frequently reject the bill saying, “I’m not paying you to train these first- and second-year lawyers.” I think that the corporations started changing the billing model. Some firms, some partners, bill $1,000 an hour or more so you can see how on a major piece of litigation, if you have 2-3 partners, and the time of associates—I know one major matter we were involved with—a big firm—I looked around the room and I think we had three partners billing an average of $800 an hour. That’s $2,500 an hour for the partners and you might have 5 or 6 associates and they were averaging $500-600 an hour. At the end of the day you are at $40,000-50,000 a day in billings and I think corporations were looking at that and saying that they cannot afford those type of fees. So I think the entire structure of corporate America is changing. If corporate America changes the way it is willing to pay big firms, big firms will make appropriate changes or go out of business. Why are larger law firms slow to adopt diversity and inclusion? It’s a statistically known fact that law firms lag behind corporate America in implementing diversity and inclusion throughout its ranks—both associates and partners—if you look at most major law firms and statistics are available the numbers are astounding of how few African American partners there are in major law firms. I think that a lot of the major corporations have recognized they are receiving legal advice from law firms on how to implement policies to avoid employment discrimination lawsuits do not apply those same standards at the law firms. I know a few years back corporations got together to come up with what they called “A Call to MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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2013 CLE EXPO SPECIAL FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW
Action” where they made a commitment to try to encourage law firms to try to include more minorities and women in their pitch teams and billing partners and I think that corporate America gets it. They are saying “We have to answer to the public and if we have no women and no minorities in my corporation my sales are going to go down. I am not going to do business with a law firm that will not implement the same policies.” While law firms are lagging, I think in time they will too “get it,” and their clients are thankfully pushing that issue.
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Do you see corporations shifting work to NAMWOLF firms? I recently joined an organization—NAMWOLF—the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms—and I think that there’s a recognition by minority lawyers, in this sense women and minorities, who tend to be lawyers from big firms who have left and established their own firms. The corporations are now hiring the lawyers, and not the firms. I can tell you that in my specific instance, if a major matter came in and the corporation wanted my skills and reputation as part of their legal team they would hire me no matter where I was. They come to me now because I’m at Martin & Gitner. I think that there are enough minority and women attorneys who have established reputations as fine lawyers that corporate America is saying to them we would like you, because of your skills, to be part of our legal team. Can you talk about your transition from government prosecutor to private attorney? What about your transitions from firm to firm? Why did you decide to change? What was your favorite place to work? I have an easy answer. The job I enjoyed the most as a lawyer was as an assistant United States attorney. I DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
had the opportunity to really feel I was making a difference in the community. I would investigate crime and I could prosecute those who had committed wrongs. I could make a difference by establishing programs to help young people. Instead of bringing them into the criminal justice system, we could have diversion programs. You could go into the community and keep young men, primarily young African American boys, from going into that prison pipeline. I think we made a difference here in Washington and I think the programs are making a difference throughout the country. But for me, the job of a federal prosecutor was making a difference, either enforcing the law, or diverting the crime. Some of the people we have saved in the community... I enjoyed that. If you asked me other than being a prosecutor, what did I like? While I enjoyed being a partner, I really enjoy owning my own law firm. Would you ever go back and work for the government? You know that’s an interesting question. I was recently asked if I was interested in rejoining the Department of Justice at a senior level and while I would be interested in that, right now I am building a business and business is going pretty well, and I would like to continue to build my business. While I would like to go back into government service, I think that that time has passed. What I am going to do for the reminder of my years of a practitioner is to build this system. What are your thoughts on the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decisions? Specifically Fischer v. Univ. of Texas and the reexamination of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I was a law student at the University of Cincinnati in the fall of 1973, after graduating from Howard University. While I attended
law school we dealt with the Washington state case of Marco DeFunis—who I believe was at the University of Washington. And I remember early on—the so-called affirmative action cases—I have been following these cases and some of these, the DeFunis case I think was a lawsuit and they were of interest to me because I was then the president of BALSA—the Black American Law Student Association—and we were interested in them because we wanted more minorities in law school. It’s interesting when you look at our laws, and some of the reverse discrimination cases. You can’t start at this point today without recognition there are hundreds of years—recently I went to the movies to watch Lincoln and after watching the blood that was spilled over the issue of slavery and the amendments to the Constitution to abolish slavery. You walk out and look at the history of race relations in the laws of America and we’re still catching up to some of the harms that were done by those bad laws. When you look at the current matters before the Supreme Court, whether or not the Voting Rights Act is, as implemented in the nine Southern states and the other states outside the South, and whether the Supreme Court will intervene to rule it constitutional, I might find it interesting on the Voting Rights Act that Congress in 2006 continued and reaffirmed it for 25 more years. Now the Supreme Court is stepping back in to reexamine that decision, for what has been argued is along pure political lines, and may be abolishing it. I can tell you now, as the current president of the Washington Bar Association, as well as the affiliate of the National Bar Association, in every jurisdiction we had attorneys at polling stations throughout America, and there were numerous complaints that either machines were not working or people had to stand in line for hours. To disenfranchise any citizen MCCA.COM
My first year I tried 30 or 40 cases because I would walk in and find cases that people would not want to try and I said, “Let me learn to try that.” in America, deny them their right to vote, is something that cannot be tolerated. I would hope that we are able to continue to have all the laws that we need to enforce every citizen’s right to vote. Politics aside, I would like as a matter of law, to be able to enforce every citizen’s right to vote. And I think the Voting Rights Act is necessary to do that. If we talk about either the University of Texas or the recent University of Michigan (Grutter v. Bollinger) case they all go back to the same concept: At what point can we say that the playing field has been leveled so that race is no longer a relevant issue for admission? I don’t think we have reached a point yet because if you look at the declining numbers of admission of minority students, either in California at Berkeley, or at University of Texas, I think that the statistics clearly establish that we are losing ground and not balancing the demographics of students and that is not to say that we are lowering standards for admission. While [SAT scores] are clearly criteria for selecting a bright student, that doesn’t mean other factors don’t need to be considered. While colleges or universities are saying we’re elimiMCCA.COM
nating or denying a student who has 1550 while admitting a student that scores 1200, that does not mean one of them didn’t work 40 hours a week, or that one of them may have come through a system where they had an inferior elementary, middle, or high school. A score of 1200 is still good, and it’s part of a larger whole. So I think using standardized tests alone does not achieve a recognition of the individual students facing admission; while it can be a criteria I think looking at more diverse students population is beneficial to the university. What’s one piece of advice you would give to young lawyers? It’s an interesting question because I had the benefit of being trained by and a mentee of Johnny Cochran and he helped me understand how to try a big case. We talked about the media before and some of the training I had was watching Johnny Cochran try the big cases and give press conferences. I recognize now that to many lawyers, many young lawyers, both African American and Caucasian, see me as a trial lawyer with a fantastic reputation and they want to know: How did you get it and what advice do you have?
I know minority lawyers and law students see me and wonder: What does it take? So the advice I give them is to follow your dreams, believe in yourself, do your best, and find a mentor who is willing to spend time with you. As a prosecutor in the city of Cincinnati, where I began my career, I used to try a case two or three times a week—so my first year I tried 30 or 40 cases in my first year because I would walk in and find cases that people would not want to try and I said, “Let me learn to try that.” I think I polished my skills in the courtroom because I have experienced every scenario in court. To those young lawyers I say believe in yourself. When that door does not open when you knock, step back and try another door, or step back and try that door again, but don’t let them convince you that you should not be at that door. Keep trying until you find what it is that you want because you would not be here with that law degree if you weren’t able to practice law. D&B Billy Martin spoke with Diversity & the Bar Editor-in-Chief Joshua Shields for this interview. MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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Spotlighting
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GROWING BY DOING Kathleen A. Ambrose BY PATRICK FOLLIARD
During the second Clinton administration, Kathleen Ambrose served in the U.S. Department of Commerce as deputy assistant secretary and deputy general counsel. At the same time, she also served in the White House as special adviser for major international summits. But there was a catch to the latter job. Ambrose agreed only to act as a Sherpa for conferences that had never before been organized by a woman. President Clinton, she says, used to joke that it must be very nice to stipulate your own job description, and then he would typically grant her request. DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
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hroughout her varied and wide-ranging career— whether in government or as a public policy adviser in the corporate world—Ambrose has consistently strived to serve and work in positions previously reserved for men. “It’s something I’ve tried to do in my professional life; and I think it’s important to help younger women do the same—not only through mentoring but by really sponsoring them too. I agree with the famous Madeleine Albright quote: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’” Today, as senior vice president of government affairs for Siemens Corporation, Ambrose is the first woman to head the multibillion-dollar German engineering and energy conglomerate’s Washington, D.C. office. In the United States alone, Siemens has 60,000 employees, 100 different manufacturing plants, and 72 businesses primarily in the healthcare and energy industries. With interests in wind and hydro power and building natural gas plants, Siemens is a huge player in the traditional and renewable energy markets. Ambrose leads an experienced team of professionals in representing the multifaceted company’s diverse interests before the U.S. Congress, the executive branch, and state and local governments. “On a day-to-day basis we deal with businesses categorized in four groups: Healthcare, Energy, Industry, and Infrastructure & Cities, whose interests are sometimes divergent. We advise them on what we think their public policy priorities are, and what we’re trying to accomplish to create the right business atmosphere for them.” She may be Siemens’ top lobbyist, but Ambrose says she always comes to the profession first as a lawyer. Fortunately, legal skills translate well to public policy work that deals with laws and regulations. It also involves amassing heaps of information and cutting it down to the pith—similar to what Ambrose learned as a young litigator in private practice. “An advocate can be a lawyer in front of a court, or a lobbyist in front of a congressional committee. Both require getting on top of the facts, prioritizing, and spitting out an orderly, defendable position. It’s not that different.” Good fortune on top of tragedy—that’s how she describes the beginnings of her impressive career. Ambrose grew up in Westchester County, New York, and came to D.C. as a high school senior when her father (also a lawyer) joined the Nixon administration. She graduated with a degree in French literature from MCCA.COM
to Washington, Ambrose worked on Capitol Hill as chief of staff for Rep. Peter Hoagland (D-Nebraska). While still working for Rep. Hoagland, she also did national scheduling for President Clinton’s first presidential campaign, an insanely detailed-oriented task that involved planning and overseeing every move made by the presidential and vice presidential nominees and their spouses. “Basically, it means deciding what you want on the 7 o’clock news every night and doing all you can 10 days in advance to make it happen. It took me six months to recover, but we won, so it was worth it.” In 1994, she joined the Clinton administration. (Compared to the White House, she says, the Hill with its relatively flexible schedule is a wonderful place for working mothers.) Since her days in government, Ambrose has made mentoring younger women a priority. She has many mentees throughout the world, some whom she has never met in person but knows through their monthly scheduled phone calls. Longtime mentee and friend Alison Kutler first met Ambrose 22 years ago when she interned in Rep. Hoagland’s office. “Kathleen definitely gave me a lot of running room,” she remembers. “My second day there, she had me write an amendment to the 1991 crime bill. It was crazy to let a college kid do this, but she thought I could handle it and supported me.” Like many others, Ambrose eventually left government for better compensation. She went in-house as Vice President of International
I agree with the famous Madeleine Albright quote: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’ the University of Maryland and worked at the U.S. Customs Service in Chicago for two years when her mother unexpectedly died, prompting Ambrose to return to Washington to help care for her two teenage siblings. At the time, then-Vice President Nelson Rockefeller generously offered Ambrose her late mother’s job as assistant labor affairs adviser in his office. When Republican incumbent President Gerald Ford lost reelection, Rockefeller recommended his Democratic employee to incoming Vice President Walter Mondale who, in turn, asked Ambrose to stay on. (“On Inaugural Day 1977, I worked for the outgoing VP in the morning and incoming VP in the afternoon— that seldom happens,” she says.) Four years later, when Jimmy Carter was defeated, Mondale advised Ambrose to attend law school to widen her professional prospects. After graduating from American University Washington College of Law at 29, Ambrose joined White and Case’s D.C. office where she spent five invaluable years as an associate litigator. With mixed feelings, she left the firm to accompany her law professor husband Barry Carter on his yearlong stint as visiting professor at Stanford Law School. When they returned MCCA.COM
Affairs at the American Chemistry Counsel and represented the industry internationally for eight years. Though she recounts particularly challenging times—like the months after 9-11 when chemical companies were considered the next possible terror targets —Ambrose considers her time on the job a “terrific learning experience.” Then in 2004, she joined NOVA Chemicals, a move which Ambrose describes as a major juncture in her career. Before NOVA, she knew the players in the chemical industry but had no idea how their businesses worked. “I didn’t go in-house as counsel but rather as head of public policy. NOVA’s CEO took me by the hand and showed me the corporate world. I sat with the executive committee, was a member of the senior team, and presented to the board all the time. It changed my life.” Prior to joining Siemens in March 2009, Ambrose was principal adviser at mining company Rio Tinto, whose huge open-pit copper mine in Salt Lake City, Utah, can be seen by the naked eye from space. As a lobbyist, says Ambrose, “You need to stick with your moral compass. On balance you need to think things are going in the right direction and that there’s enough there to justify working for that company.” Praised as a strong investor in America in President Obama’s two most recent State of the Union Addresses, Siemens is one of the United States’ largest foreign investors. “It’s a company rife with endless opportunities and numerous people to manage, which I like and find very gratifying,” Ambrose says. “At this point in my career, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. “I subscribe to Sheryl Sandberg’s philosophy—find what you love to do for your career and lean-in hard.” D&B Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md. MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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AN ACADEMIC
SECOND ACT L AW YERS TURNED COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
by LYDIA LUM
LEAVING THE BAR
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Lawyers who chose to leave the profession to become college presidents warn that such a position is not a figurehead. A seven-day-a-week job with long, unpredictable hours, the presidency requires management skills to marshal sundry constituents. Shouldering omnipresent pressure, these leaders are acutely aware that their decisions impact thousands of students, professors, and alumni. Nevertheless, lawyers are stepping up and meeting the challenge.
AS A SENIOR EXECUTIVE at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, Alecia DeCoudreaux was often courted by recruiters who dangled prestigious jobs in and out of the legal profession. But only one job intrigued her enough to apply for it. In 2011, DeCoudreaux switched gears by becoming president of Mills College in Oakland, Calif. “I had fabulous legal positions,” says DeCoudreaux, who was once vice president and general counsel of Lilly’s U.S. affiliate. “Any second career of mine would only be in the nonprofit world, preferably in higher education.” She is among lawyers around the country who have left the bar to preside over institutions of higher learning. As Baby Boomer presidents retire, college governing boards are slowly yet steadily hiring new presidents from outside academia to lead the campuses in an era of seemingly unprecedented challenges in student access and affordability, opportunities in technology and online education, and stepped-up competition for top faculty. About 20 percent of college presidents in 2011 were from outside of higher education, compared with DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
only 13 percent in 2006, according to the American Council on Education. Among incumbents in 2011, only 1 percent had come directly from the legal profession, as DeCoudreaux did. Other so-called outsider presidents came from government, business, the military, or the clergy. Meanwhile, career academicians still made up the majority of presidents. Yet in Diversity & the Bar interviews, several attorneys-turned-college-presidents noted that many of the daily issues on a college campus—housing, benefits, employment, and finance, among others—are parallel to those facing GCs within corporations. Even faculty tenure—the near-guarantee of permanent employment for professors no matter what viewpoints they espouse—is essentially a contract. So it’s no surprise that DeCoudreaux and her peers believe careers in the law bear relevance for steering colleges and universities. In 30 years at Lilly, DeCoudreaux’s responsibilities included guiding the company through compliance processes for all U.S. regulations, such as its applications with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch new drugs. In recent months, she has drawn MCCA.COM
Alecia DeCoudreaux poses with a graduate of Mills College in Oakland, California, where she serves as the college’s president.
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on leadership and management skills honed at Lilly to head a team of Mills College constituents in drafting the school’s next strategic plan. “My time at Lilly was not only spent practicing law,” DeCoudreaux says, “but also overseeing the work of others. As a college president, I ferret out facts, communicate decisions, and help others work to their optimal levels.” She and her counterparts are well aware of college faculty skepticism over whether presidents from outside academia can fully integrate. Among other things, they fear these presidents can’t comprehend the rigors accompanying scholarly research. Some of the presidents, meanwhile, acknowledge that the learning curves of outsiders depend upon the type of college they lead. Yet Rutgers University-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett, an Ivy League veteran and former lawyer and professor, says, “The truth is, most faculty have not had enough experience with management issues to be successful college presidents. Some lawyers have advantages over some professors.” MCCA.COM
Pritchett suggests attorneys interested in college presidencies focus on gaining management experience within the legal profession. “I know lots of lawyers,” he says, “and can picture some of them succeeding as college presidents because they have strong management skills, the ability to identify priorities, and they’re willing to organize people around those priorities.” Bowdoin College trustees found such an executive in 2001 when they tapped career lawyer Barry Mills for the presidency, a position he still holds. Mills had been deputy presiding partner at the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where his 22-year practice revolved around real estate, corporate finance, and large-scale transactions. As Mills settled into his new surroundings in Brunswick, Maine, one of his early speeches to Bowdoin stakeholders examined similarities between the organizational cultures of the college and the law firm. “Building consensus was a large part of what I was trained to do, both in the transactions we worked on and in running our firm,” he said at the time. “I had to listen to what people were really saying and figure MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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out what was really important to them. The firm was a real democracy with 90 partners, all of whom thought they knew best. My life at the firm was spent managing and leading a complicated organization of strong, intelligent individuals. “Bowdoin is a similar place—a place to build community in support of academic excellence,” Mills said in his 2001 speech. “We are an organization of strong, intelligent individuals, all of whom care deeply about Bowdoin and its future.” Reflecting on his observations from 12 years ago, he says, “I’m still the same person and lead the same way as when I was in law practice. I do have views and priorities and Ronald Mason Jr. developed a special program to try to build consensus, and hopefully improve graduation rates among African American the Bowdoin constituents can agree to males at Southern University and the A&M College some version of what issues we ought System in Louisana. to face.” Mills adds: “The job of a lawyer providing service University and A&M College and advice on the client’s schedule is complicated, System in Louisiana in 2010, stressful, and unpredictable. But running a college is he began developing a special different because the impact of any decision on numerproject aimed at improving ous lives is very significant. It has deep reverberations.” graduation rates of African He and others caution lawyers not to mistakenly American males, who in 2009 regard college presidencies as any form of early retirewere outnumbered by almost ment. College presidents nowadays rarely enjoy spare 2-to-1 nationally by African time. They constantly meet with employees, business American females in attainment executives, and community leaders and are expected to of bachelor’s degrees. attend as many campus events as feasible, ranging from Under the project this past intercollegiate sports, student government forums, and school year, an initial cohort performing arts. Presidents spend increasing amounts of 16 low-income, black male of time raising funds from foundations and alumni high school graduates began classes at Southern’s New in order to keep tuition hikes modest and to afford Orleans campus although they hadn’t met its admiscompetitive faculty salaries. They’re also expected sions criteria. A separate application and screening to prepare the campus to respond to crises such as process had indicated their academic potential despite accidents or violence resulting in casualties or natural personal hardships such as lacking any real home since disasters forcing class cancellations. And presidents are Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005. The obligated to confer with and answer questions about students will major in education or another discipline even the tiniest matter from members of the governing allowing them to meet requirements for classroom board that hired them, sometimes with no notice. teaching certification. Upon graduation, they are “It’s almost a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job,” expected to teach at least two years in a New Orleans DeCoudreaux says of her two years at Mills College. public school in order to qualify for Southern’s loan “It’s not always idyllic.” forgiveness clause covering their college costs. Mason calls the students “hidden stars who have gone MAKING A DIFFERENCE through lots of tough stuff ” in their young lives. Despite the pressures, former attorneys such as Ronald The teacher-preparation project is part of a national Mason Jr. relish the top job in academia because they initiative led by Mason to enable black men with life can pursue goals with far-reaching implications. When challenges to become educators and leaders and just as Mason became president of the multicampus Southern importantly, he says, avoid poor choices that can land DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
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Long before presiding over universities, Ronald Mason Jr. was mentoring scores of black Tulane Law School students— including MCCA President and CEO Joseph K. West—whom he met at pickup basketball games. Weekly play began after Mason joined the university in 1982 as its general counsel, and he, then-President Eamon Kelly, and other administrators secured keys to the basketball arena. Professors and students from the nearby law school started showing up, too. Whereas the president and other administrators lost interest and quit playing, Mason continued. A 1L in 1983, West heard a rumor that an African American GC hosted Sunday pickup games. His entering class had
them in prison. Although he never set out to become a college president, he credits thenTulane University President Eamon Kelly with mentoring him in that direction after hiring him as Tulane’s general counsel in 1982. Mason rose to senior vice president, overseeing all financial and business operations until 2000 when he became president of Jackson State University in Mississippi, which, like the Southern University System, is historically black. “Historically black institutions are where my skills are best used, and I have always tried to take care of the least amongst us,” Mason says, referring to how such schools typically serve students of all ethnicities who are educationally and financially disadvantaged. Mills of Bowdoin College is likewise committed to improving higher education access to underserved families. One of his signature priorities has been increasing scholarships and grants. Four years ago, Bowdoin closed a fundraising campaign that reaped $293 million, with one-third of it earmarked for aid to low- and moderate-income students. And since fall MCCA.COM
only about 10 blacks, and Tulane had produced its first African American law graduate only 15 years earlier. West recalls no African American law faculty until a woman was hired during his 3L year. West joined the pickup games, and Mason encouraged him and other black law students to seek him out on campus. “Ron personally gave me advice on study habits and course selection,” he says, adding that Mason held group study sessions at his home. Mason hosted pickup games throughout his 18 years at Tulane and now counts hundreds of lawyers and judges among his former mentees. “Many of them—like Joe—have found success,” he says. “I was happy to help.”
2008, Bowdoin has replaced loans with grants in its financial aid packages. Bowdoin’s endowment now covers about 50 percent of the college-wide financial aid burden, Mills says, compared with 30 percent when his presidency began. He’s proud that such moves have improved the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the student body. About 31 percent of the 1,750 students are minorities, for example, compared with only 14 percent in 2001. When Bowdoin hosts its annual luncheon honoring graduating seniors who are first-generation college-goers—as Mills was—their testimonials resonate with him. “This is why I’m intensely focused on bringing talented students to our college without regard to how much money they have,” says Mills, a 1972 alumnus whose modest upbringing never included air travel prior to enrolling at Bowdoin. Back in 2000, Bowdoin trustees invited Mills, also a trustee at the time, to join their pool of presidential candidates, and he’s glad he did. He believes the restructuring of financial aid programs would have been near-impossible if he hadn’t secured a consensus among Bowdoin administrators and others to do so. VOICES FOR THE ENDANGERED At Rutgers-Camden, consensus building proved crucial in literally keeping the school intact, says Pritchett, its chancellor since 2009. MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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“RUNNING A COLLEGE IS DIFFERENT [THAN PRACTICING LAW] BECAUSE THE IMPACT OF ANY DECISION ON NUMEROUS LIVES IS VERY SIGNIFICANT. IT HAS DEEP REVERBERATIONS.”—Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College
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Early last year, New Jersey legislators considered removing Pritchett’s campus from the Rutgers system and merging it with Rowan University, an idea endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie in response to drastic state budget cuts. Pritchett, meanwhile, urged Rutgers-Camden stakeholders to join him in voicing opposition to Christie and legislators. Such a merger, the chancellor contended, could take a decade or longer to complete. Pritchett and other critics predicted a forced merger would drive Rutgers-Camden faculty and students to colleges in Philadelphia, only five miles away, because the new institution would lack the world-renowned Rutgers name. Furthermore, most of his 6,600 students attended Rutgers-Camden rather than Rutgers-New Brunswick 50 miles away because of local jobs and family obligations, Pritchett argued. Almost 90 percent of Rutgers-Camden students were commuters, about 80 percent held off-campus jobs, and more than one-fourth of undergraduates were age 25 or older. Following months of protests from students and faculty and countless trips by Pritchett to the state capital, legislators left Rutgers-Camden a distinct campus and scrapped the merger proposal. Looking back, Pritchett, whose law practice in the 1990s focused on real estate development, credits his legal training in prevailing last year at the legislature. “Winning that battle involved bringing people together with disparate viewpoints and organizing people around a set of goals,” he recalls. Before joining Rutgers-Camden, he taught history for four years at Baruch College of the City University of New York and law for seven years at the University of Pennsylvania. Pritchett also believes government jobs such as a nine-month stint in 2008 as Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s deputy chief DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
Barry Mills is committed to improving the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of Bowdoin.
of staff and policy director gave him legislative insight helpful during the fight to keep RutgersCamden intact. While Pritchett remains fiercely protective of his campus, DeCoudreaux is just as passionate about the mission of Mills College, a women’s institution that offers graduate programs to men. Whereas 300-plus women’s colleges existed in the 1990s, there are now fewer than 60 nationally including Mills. A trustee and alumna of the all-women Wellesley College, DeCoudreaux champions single-sex education, which she contends eliminates the competition for academic support and opportunity common in coed environments. Back at Lilly, she always told recruiters who called to keep her in mind for jobs involving education and women’s advocacy. “Because I made my interests known,” she says, “I wasn’t surprised to hear of the Mills College opening. I’m lucky this college found me. If you believe in the organization, it helps make the 24/7 job fun.” D&B Lydia Lum is a freelance writer and former reporter for the Houston Chronicle and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. MCCA.COM
MCCA’s Academy for Leadership & Inclusion is coming soon to New York City! MCCA’s Academy for Leadership and Inclusion is a groundbreaking, interactive training program designed to show you how to define, create, and sustain a diverse and inclusive workplace. As a participant in the Academy, you will learn inclusion principles that can be implemented immediately within your organization. MCCA will present this four-hour training across the country throughout 2013. These courses will be offered in 6 cities across the country: Bentonville, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and New Orleans.
MetLife, Inc. 1095 Avenue of the Americas New York City, NY 10036
Exclusive and free for: • MCCA’s members • Law firms in MCCA’s Firm Affiliate Network (FAN)
Interested in becoming a member or FAN? Contact David Chu at davidchu@mcca.com
Go to: www.mcca.com
MCCA.COM
MAY/JUNE 2013 DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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the Pipeline
Problem
A DA P T, O R G O O U T O F B U S I N E S S by LEKAN OGUNTOYINBO
the Pipeline
Problem
A DA P T, O R G O O U T O F B U S I N E S S by LEKAN OGUNTOYINBO
T
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he Howard University School of L aw has significantly expanded its number of legal clinics as par t of an effort to give students more hands-on experience before entering the real world. The clinics—in fair housing, investments, investor justice, and trademarks— are supervised by faculty and are designed to give graduates an advantage in a highly competitive marketplace, says Okianer Christian Dark, interim dean of Howard University’s law school. The University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law, another historically black institution with a strong public service legal tradition, is enrolling an increasing number of part-time students as it adjusts to the financial realities of its students. “There was a big switch with more students opting for the part-time program just for financial reasons. [Students] would rather take four years and work instead of amassing more debt,” says Dean Shelley Broderick, noting that the class admitted last year was roughly split between fulland part-time students. The year before, 80 fulltime and 49 part-time students enrolled; the year before that the split was 90 to 34. The changes at Howard and UDC are among many the nation’s approximately 200 accredited law schools are having to make because of turmoil in the legal profession. And along with these changes come questions about what that could mean for minority enrollment. The legal profession is shrinking rapidly. By some estimates, there is one job for every two newly minted law school graduates. Blue chip law firms, once seen as the gold standard for success in the practice of law and a DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
pipeline to the upper middle class, are increasingly laying off lawyers, reducing the number of associates and in many cases demoting partners, in effect changing their status as shareholders. Some disgruntled recent law school graduates, burdened by huge debts of as much as $100,000 and frustrated by their inability to find jobs, have sued their alma maters, charging that law schools misled them by inflating their job prospects with inaccurate job-placement data on recent graduates. This public relations black eye coupled with dim job prospects has sent law school applications plunging. The Law School Admission Council, which administers the Law School Admission Test, reports that the nation’s law schools project only 54,000 applications for fall 2013. That’s nearly half of the applications from just a few years ago. Stung by these pesky allegations, the lawsuits and the rapid changes in the legal profession, many law schools have been adjusting their business models. Some, like Howard and UDC, are tweaking their curriculum and touting their strengths as institutions with a strong focus on public service and as places that ensure that their graduates can go directly from the classroom to the courtroom. Many others are adjusting to the market changes. Barry Currier, who oversees the accreditation process for the America Bar Association, has identified clear trends among the nation’s law schools. He says many have reduced enrollment while some have introduced loan forgiveness programs for new graduates who seek work in the public sector. Many have stepped up efforts to help graduating students find work, he adds. There’s no evidence that the sharp drop in law school numbers has hit minorities disproportionately hard—yet. “There hasn’t been any disproportionate reduction” in the percentage of minorities and women enrolled in law school, Currier says, noting that the demographic breakdown for Fall 2012 enrollment had yet to be released. “That’s my impression. But it’s an informed impression.” Alison Monahan, a lawyer, writer, and commentator on the legal profession and proprietor of girlsguidetolawschool.com, says that while it’s too early to determine what impact these changes will have on minority enrollment, she’s certain it will have some effect on diversity. “Who can afford these schools? It’s definitely the upper-class white guys,” says Monahan, a 2006 graduate of Columbia University’s law school. “I can see some [women and minorities] say this is a risky decision. They might look at the fact that they might not fit in or they will be in debt when they are done.” Even before the current crisis, many leaders of minority bar associations had been clamoring to improve diversity in MCCA.COM
the legal profession. Although racial minorities are about 30 percent of the population, they make up less than 20 percent of jurists. Hispanics, for example, the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group, are 16 percent of the population but only 3.7 percent of lawyers, according to the National Hispanic Bar Association. For Hispanic women, who make up 8 percent of the population, the numbers are even more dismal. Only 1.3 percent of lawyers are Latinas, the bar says. Minority bar groups say they are watching closely for the impact these trends will have on the enrollment of underrepresented groups. “The question is how they will reduce their numbers,” says Peter Reyes, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. He notes that LSAT scores are a key criteria for law school admission. Students of color have historically not performed as well as whites on standardized tests. Reyes says that although LSAT scores for non-whites have climbed in recent years, that population has seen no appreciable increase in law school enrollment during that period. “One of the key criteria they use is LSAT scores. We have seen LSAT scores for people of color increase in recent years but their enrollment has not kept pace with the population.” Reyes says HNBA is forming a law professor section that would closely examine law school issues. “We’re very concerned about making sure the [enrollment] numbers are consistent with the numbers in population,” he says. John Page, president of the National Bar Association, says big changes in the industry and law schools are experiencing directly or indirectly have an impact on diversity. He cites an example from several years ago when the American Bar Association promoted a measure that would have required accredited law schools to have a 70 percent firsttime pass rate for the bar exam.
MCCA.COM
I CAN SEE SOME [WOMEN AND MINORITIES] SAY THIS IS A RISKY DECISION. THEY MIGHT… BE IN DEBT WHEN THEY ARE DONE. ALISON MONAHAN “That would have eliminated most of the HBCU law schools,” he says. “We won the day on that one. Every option has a consequence. Our job is to make sure we are conversant with what’s being offered. We owe each other an honest discussion of the impact of this.” In the meantime, as the industry continues to realign, bar leaders like Reyes and Page say they will not relent in their outreach efforts to young people. The NBA has several outreach programs and will launch a new one this spring, Saturday School, which targets middle and high school kids and strives to “demystify” the process of becoming an attorney. The Hispanic National Bar Association plans to roll out a national mock trial program to expose children to Hispanic lawyers. “We have to make sure there is no impediment to those going to law school,” says Page. “The fact is, there is competition for every seat. We need to make sure competition is fair and prepare them for the competition. We have to show minority students a clear path to becoming lawyers.” D&B
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THE RIGHT
TO
LS LLOYD M. JOHNSON JR.
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM MCCA's scholarship program gives law students a financial boost so they can achieve their dreams. BY BRIAN DABBS
LONG BEFORE landing at Harvard Law
School, Victoria White had laid the foundation for a career working on behalf of historically disenfranchised communities. She majored in Women’s Studies at Spelman College, graduating magna cum laude. She then went to Capitol Hill to work at the nonprofit Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
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t was in the nation’s capital, where both egregiously oppressive and seminally liberating American legislation originates, that White decided law would be the vehicle through which she could address the pressing issues of equality in contemporary society. “Having been on the Hill, I had so much exposure to so many people who studied law… lobbyists and lawyers… people working for nonprofits,” says White, 26, who is in her second semester at the Cambridge, Mass.-based law school. “The President and First Lady both have law degrees. I saw everything you can do with a law degree, and I figured it would help me become the best I can be, which is important to better serve.” As law school tuition rates continue to climb across the nation, the decision to pursue a law career is more daunting than ever. To help students cope with the financial burden, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) designed the Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. (LMJ) scholarship program. Since its inception in 2005, the LMJ program has helped 136 highly qualified and exceptionally skilled students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds like White to pursue law degrees. The scholarship made White’s decision to attend law school an easy one. “I think it makes a big difference. In these economic times, some of the interest on certain loans is starting to incur before you get out of school,” says White, who is expected to graduate in 2015. “So you try to avoid taking out more loans.” The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) recruits and vets the applicants for the MCCA scholarship program to produce a steady supply of minority and economically disadvantaged candidates for corporate law. The applicants DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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must complete FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) documentation, have above a 3.2 GPA and an interest in corporate law, and write an essay that demonstrates leadership qualities. There is no LSAT score requirement. Last year 562 students completed the application. In 2011 and 2010, 613 and 812 students, respectively, applied for the program. From those applications, UNCF vets the applicants and narrows the field down to the top 40 prospective students. MCCA awarded 15 scholarships to students slated to matriculate in 2015 (who entered law school in fall 2012). Three applicants are chosen as alternates in case the winners choose to forgo law school. The number of scholarship awardees has fluctuated between 19 and 15 since the program began. White joins 14 other recipients in the 2015 LMJ scholarship graduate class: Adam Amir, KeAndra Barlow, Malinda Bridges, Christine Chan, Kendell Coates, Derrick Davis, Celeste Jackson, Luis Landeros, Kelsey Leonard, Emily Ly, Kathy Nguyen, Ingrid Perez, Anthony Pettes, and Andre Scott. All applicants must be U.S. citizens who plan to attend law school full-time during the day. Chosen students receive an initial $10,000 award aimed at offsetting costs in the first year of law school. The students then compete for additional financial disbursement over the next two years by submitting academic scores and another essay. The essay must demonstrate non-quantifiable academic excellence, participation in community service, and commitment to diversity. Of the more than 400 scholarship programs UNCF coordinates, the LMJ scholarship is the only one for legal students. White plans to use this rare opportunity to pursue a career in transactional and intellectual property law on MCCA.COM
ADAM AMIR KEANDRA BARLOW MALINDA BRIDGES CHRISTINE CHAN KENDELL COATES
DERRICK DAVIS CELESTE JACKSON LUIS LANDEROS KELSEY LEONARD EMILY LY
behalf of independent music artists, a field that will enable her to incorporate her passion for music. “There’s a lot of sampling and derivative work from artists that aren’t represented by big labels,” says White. “Sometimes music gets sampled and there are no royalties involved. I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.” In the foreseeable five- to six-year future, White anticipates practicing law in an effort to enhance the rights of independent artists, an abused segment of a ruthless, predatory industry. If she’s like previous LMJ recipients, White will make a significant impact on the evolving music business. In LMJ’s eight-year history, former recipients have gone on to impressive positions within law and the corporate environment at large, from JAG attorneys to corporate vice presidents. The LMJ program sponsors range from Microsoft and Walmart to King and Spalding LLP and other premium corporate law firms, all of which detail particular, wideranging criteria for their beneficiaries. Each company decides the amount of money and sponsorships to contribute. One company might sponsor three students at different levels. As a result, the LMJ scholarship program uniquely targets students from varied backgrounds and experiences, many of whom have not had a traditional trajectory toward law school admission. “Some are now coming from school. Some are returning from spending 10 to 15 years in the workforce,” says Alice Sykes, the UNCF point person for the LMJ scholarship program. “It’s an extremely diverse group of people that apply for this scholarship. The people who are awarded it are bright and crafty. They are wonderful.” T.R. Bynum III, a member of the inaugural LMJ class of 2008, took an unconventional path to his law career. MCCA.COM
KATHY NGUYEN INGRID PEREZ ANTHONY PETTES ANDRE SCOTT. VICTORIA WHITE
A litigation associate at Husch Blackwell LLP, one of the largest firms in St. Louis, Bynum was an eight-year veteran officer and detective on the St. Louis police force before entering law school at Washington University of St. Louis. For Bynum, the attraction to law was based on a drive to make valuable contributions to societal discourse and to enhance personal perspectives. “I wouldn’t have been in law school had I not been in law enforcement. I wanted to keep growing and advancing and understanding the framework of our society. I wanted
IT'S AN EXTREMELY DIVERSE GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT APPLY FOR THIS SCHOLARSHIP. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE AWARDED IT ARE BRIGHT AND CRAFTY. THEY ARE WONDERFUL.—Alice Sykes
to seek out the origins of what I was doing and what I was experiencing,” says Bynum. “I didn’t know any lawyers except prosecutors during my enforcement career. The criminal lawyers are the one point of contact between the law and many people of underprivileged backgrounds. MAY/JUNE 2013
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For me, I just didn’t want to stop there.” LMJ recipients continue to blaze a trail in the higher echelons of the corporate community, while commonly demonstrating a commitment to serve the routinely exploited or neglected segments of society. Melanie Jean-Noel, a member of the 2009 class, entered the field during a calamitous year for corporate law firms, one marred by pervasive layoffs. But
I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN IN LAW SCHOOL HAD I NOT BEEN IN LAW ENFORCEMENT. I WANTED TO KEEP GROWING AND ADVANCING AND UNDERSTANDING THE FRAMEWORK OF OUR SOCIETY.— T.R. Bynum III
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due to her rich personal and professional experience and the financially sound condition of the Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP firm, she became a litigation associate directly out of law school upon passing the New York Bar. She works in a variety of different litigation sectors and has extensive experience in intellectual property issues. The Atlanta native has also engaged in pro bono work that exemplifies both the fascinating and altruistic outreach of many LMJ recipients. In 2010, as the Haitian community in the U.S. felt the impacts of the earthquake that ravaged their homeland, Jean-Noel jumped at the chance to help those in the New York City region. “The U.S. government allowed the Haitian people who were in the U.S. at the time of the earthquake to stay in the U.S. and seek protective status,” said 28-year-old JeanNoel, part Haitian by heritage and a Creole speaker. “The problem is that a lot of people who aren’t from the U.S., and don’t speak English, have difficulty applying for protective status. … Obviously people who have been displaced might find it intimidating and difficult to apply for protective status. They needed people who could speak Creole and lawyers who could help them fill out the application.” Jean-Noel commends other aspects of the LMJ scholarship, in addition to the financial award, as critical to the success she currently enjoys. Although MCCA is currently exploring ways to initiate a formal mentoring and job placement program, Jean-Noel says MCCA staff members independently guided her on her path and helped her land summer positions that ultimately provided an edge. She also notes the inherent DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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advantage of going to law school full-time, during the day, as opposed to night programs balanced by work. “To juggle a full-time job and study law is obviously very difficult. Grades may suffer,” says Jean-Noel. “I’m not 100 percent sure (what I’ll be doing three years from now) to be honest with you. I still see myself practicing law. One thing is for sure, I think I’m well-positioned to have access to a variety of positions. Another thing I’m sure of is the help that the LMJ scholarship gave me.” From former recipients practicing law in the corporate world to students presently enrolled in law school, all LMJ scholarship beneficiaries acknowledge the intrinsic value and advantage of the scholarship’s core objective: to promote the representation of socio-economic diversity in the corporate law world. “Our clients represent an ethnic, cultural and religious mix. It’s better for their needs if the people serving them have an inherent understanding of their needs,” says LMJ 2010 graduate class member April Gu, a 28-year-old associate in project finance at New York-based Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. “The LMJ scholarship program goes a long way in encouraging students, who otherwise might be shut out, to explore these opportunities.” Gu and her firm work extensively with natural resource projects abroad, primarily in South America, and within the United States, as well. Gu largely analyzes contracts and drafts documents for current and future projects. Much of the firm’s work, she says, has a significant impact on the growth of developing economies, a fundamental interest for Gu throughout her academic and professional career. She expected to be in her current position as associate despite the struggles of the law field’s financial condition during her transition into full-time employment. The perseverance of individuals such as Gu serve as motivation to those deciding whether to enter law school in these times of lingering economic distress. According to the Law School Admission Council, law school applications have dropped 20 percent from the same time last year and 38 percent since 2010. In 2004, there were roughly 100,000 applicants to law school while 54,000 students applied in 2013. Without the LMJ scholarship program, 2015 graduate class member Anthony Pettes says his decision-making process would have been distinctly different. “It’s definitely something that weighed heavily on the decision to go to law school. I’ve already thought maybe I should start working again. So this has been really helpful,” says 34-year-old Pettes, a Marine Corps veteran of the war in Iraq and a father of three. Pettes is currently enrolled at Duke University School of Law. “The level of commitment MCCA has shown is something I’m really thankful for.” Pettes envisions himself as a practicing patent attorney following graduation. Although most LMJ recipients enter the law field, some chose other career destinations. An assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, MCCA.COM
San Francisco, Ami Parekh, a member of the 2009 LMJ graduate class, says law school gave her invaluable flexibility. “Although I am not a practicing lawyer, I do think my law degree was essential for me in my current role and I believe I will continue to use things I learned in law school along my future career path,” says Parekh, also a researcher specializing in the development of innovative care with a focus on Affordable Care Act provisions. “By allowing me to pursue law school and granting me some degree of financial freedom, the LMJ scholarship helped me be creative in my career endeavors.” The LMJ scholarship program will continue to afford exceptional students of all socio-economic backgrounds and experiences the tools necessary to enter and excel in fields across the corporate spectrum. In substantive ways, such scholarship programs are fundamentally changing the character of power and influence throughout the country. “In a lot of ways, increased diversity pushes what is accepted. It’s no longer accepted to have monolithic institutions in public and private businesses,” says Harvard’s White. “This society is made up of people from different backgrounds and we demand that in the corporate world. That celebrates what is best about American culture.” D&B Brian Dabbs is a freelance writer and editor based in Washington, D.C.
CLASS OF 2015 The students are studying at top law schools around the country. ADAM AMIR University of California, Berkeley School of Law
ANDRE SCOTT University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison
MALINDA BRIDGES University of Virginia School of Law
ANTHONY PETTES
CHRISTINE CHAN
Duke University School of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
CELESTE JACKSON
EMILY LY
Duke University School of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
37 DERRICK DAVIS
KATHY NGUYEN
Harvard Law School
University of Pennsylvania Law School
INGRID PEREZ
KELSEY LEONARD
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
Duquesne University School of Law
KEANDRA BARLOW
LUIS LANDEROS
University of Michigan Law School
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
KENDELL COATES
VICTORIA WHITE
University of Chicago Law School
Harvard Law School
MAY/JUNE 2013
DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
14th
Annual
MCCA’s 14th Annual Creating Pathways to Diversity® Conference Marriott Marquis Hotel | New York, NY
Experience the cutting-edge discussions and practical skills-building workshops!
For details and to register go to www.mcca.com/pathways2013
Register Now!
Monday, September 16, 2013
14th
Annual
REGISTRATION FORM CONTACT INFORMATION
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$350 Early Bird (Deadline: August 12, 2013) $350 MCCA** and ACC members/FANs/Pathways Sponsor Rate $350 Group Rate (Rate is per person; 3+ from the same organization) $450 General Registration (After August 12, 2013)
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Add a ticket to attend MCCA’s Diversity Honors Gala
MAIL form and check to: Minority Corporate Counsel Association 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20004
at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on Tuesday, September 17, 2013
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FAX form to (202) 739-5999
$625 MCCA Diversity Honors Gala, Non In-House Counsel $475 MCCA Diversity Honors Gala, In-House Counsel Ticket $450 MCCA Diversity Honors Gala, Member/FAN Ticket $375 VIP Reception Only $ Total Amount
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*By submitting this form, you agree to MCCA’s cancellation policy and grant MCCA the right to photograph, film, and use your likeness and voice in MCCA related publicity and advertising. MCCA is a not-for-profit organization classified under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. MCCA’s tax identification number is 13-3920905. ** MCCA corporate members receive up to 3 complimentary registrations to attend the Creating Pathways to Diversity® Conference. Contact a staff member at education@mcca.com for details.
ASSOCIATION FOCUS
BY BRIAN DABBS
DON BOSCO CRISTO REY
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serve children from low-income families in Washington D.C., Prince George’s County (Maryland), and the vicinity. D.C. area law firms make up nearly a third of Don Bosco Cristo Rey’s 75 corporate sponsors. But students are A NEW SCHOOL MODEL employed across the corporate spectrum, from funeral home companies to mortgage giant Fannie Mae, largely in clerical AFTER MIGUEL COLON LOST HIS FATHER positions that give them valuable, transferable skills. TO GUN VIOLENCE AT AGE THREE, HIS Founder and President Father Steve Shafran says keeping MOTHER FLED NEW YORK CITY TO SEEK A these high-potential students on the right path literally and LIFE FOR HER CHILDREN UNSHACKLED BY figuratively means going with them on the journey. “We are TOO FAMILIAR CRIME. With few viable options, in the car with the kid and the sponsors. We’re not driving she settled in the poverty-stricken Washington, D.C. the car [because we want them to] believe in themselves; … neighborhood of Trinidad. Miguel Colon might have fallen so often they’re told otherwise,” Shafran says. “But where victim to gun violence that claimed his father or the street you’re from shouldn’t dictate your future.” code that glamorizes fast cash of the drug trade like his Don Bosco Cristo Rey replicates the work-study model now-incarcerated older brother or mired in hopelessness like used in all Cristo Rey schools, while partnering locally with many of his impoverished neighbors. That might have been the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. and the Salesians of his story were it not for an Don Bosco. Although unconventional high school corporate employthat gives low-income, ment is a fundamental but determined and highaspect of the institupotential, youth a taste of tion’s philosophy and what their fulfilling future practice, the school looks like. curriculum adheres to Today Miguel, a 16-yearCatholic school and old 10th grader, maintains Maryland state accredhigh academic marks while itation standards. Don working five days a month Bosco Cristo Rey —FATHER STEVE SHAFRAN boasts astonishing at the esteemed Jones Day law firm in the heart of academic success rates. the nation’s capital. Shepherding his cause is the Don Bosco Of the two classes to graduate from the institution in 2011 Cristo Rey high school in Takoma Park; an institution that and 2012, 100 percent of students were accepted to college, coordinates employment opportunities in the corporate landing admission to top-tier schools such as Georgetown world for disadvantaged student while helping them to and Pennsylvania State universities. carve out unlikely paths to college. “This isn’t an institution where teachers come at 8 “My mother liked [Don Bosco Cristo Rey] because of o’clock and leave at 3 o’clock and they’re done. On average, the involvement between parents and staff. But I always teachers here put in 70 to 80 hours a week. These teachers wanted to get into law. I always wanted to go to NYU to are an extremely committed group willing to work hard study law,” says the son of Puerto Rican immigrants. “I with students,” says this semester’s criminal justice and U.S. know my future. You have to choose a life of meaning.” government teacher, Brian Brower, 25. “The vast majority The Catholic high school’s innovative, unorthodox of kids that come here…they want to go to college. Their model enables 315 students to partially fund their educaparents want them to go to college. That is the goal.” tion through corporate employment experience. Part of a The school has a multi-faceted outreach network aimed nationwide network that consists of 25 Cristo Rey instituat recruiting only those students driven by that goal. The tions, the Takoma Park school opened in 2007 to primarily school spreads its message at community centers, events,
“WE’RE NOT DRIVING THE CAR [BECAUSE WE WANT THEM TO] BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES.”
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and by word of mouth. It also has scouts, called “gatekeepers” by Father Steve, throughout the local school system who relay names of noticeably fit candidates. But the criteria have distinct parameters, as well. “We target families with income levels less than $40,000,” says Father Steve, noting more than half of the student body is Hispanic and roughly a third African American and African immigrant. “They have to qualify in that bracket to come. They need to demonstrate need. If they can afford quality education, we don’t admit them.” Parents, however, are still required to contribute financially. Those contributions are negotiable but, according to Father Steve, range from $900 to $1,000 annually. Employment in the corporate sector generates roughly half of each student’s $13,000 annual tuition. The remaining sum comes from grants, fundraisers, and other methods. The first Cristo Rey School in Chicago launched in 1996 by Father John P. Foley upon return from philanthropic work in Peru. The success of that program paved the way for the establishment of the Cristo Rey network in 2001 and the extension of its unconventional corporate workinclusion model. Don Bosco Cristo Rey assigns a four-student team to each sponsor, which together equal the hours of a full-time employee. Each student works one day of the week, and one Monday per month. Students are rarely rewarded their field of work preference, due to logistical difficulties, but embrace the opportunity nonetheless. “At orientation, I say there are no 14-year-olds in this department. We treat them as adults and expect them to act as adults. And they do,” says Shannon Alford, conference center manager and coordinator for the students at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, referencing the age some freshmen enter the program. “We have very high expectations and have never been disappointed.” The students, under Alford’s direction and supervision, assist in the logistical and administrative duties involved with hosting roughly 400 conference attendees daily. At Don Bosco Cristo Rey, basic interpersonal skills, like shaking hands, looking people in the eye and managing their time effectively, are honed during a summer preparatory, three-week session for incoming and transfer students, dubbed “business boot camp.” MCCA.COM
“It’s a wonderful program…very successful,” she adds. “It’s an advantage for them. It’s a plus for us. It’s an amazing process to see the development of these students from the beginning of the school year to the end, and from one year to the next.” Don Bosco Cristo Rey has yet to reach a sustainable financial model with its sponsor alliances, however. The school wants to boost its student body to 500. According to Father Steve, a school annex, capable of holding nine classrooms, is slated for completion in the fall. At that point, Don Bosco Cristo Rey will have sufficient real estate to incorporate additional students. But the need to forge new partnerships with sponsors remains. “We want warm referrals. We ask current clients about potential additional sponsors. We also network through attending events,” says Alicia Bondanella, executive director of Don Bosco Cristo Rey’s Corporate Work Study Program, noting that 92 percent of sponsors recently said students met or exceeded expectations. “The idea is the more students you have, the more the cost of education goes down. And we’re making more money. Otherwise, we have to do more fundraising.” Sponsor representatives invariably laud the Don Bosco Cristo Rey student pool, and the program at large, praising the hard-working employees they receive at an affordable rate. Sponsors are also meeting corporate responsibility demands and, some say, uplifting employee morale through the Don Bosco Cristo Rey relationship. “If I had another corporation or sponsor ask me about whether to get involved, I’d give them a high review,” says Kim Kenny, assistant administrator for White & Case, another Don Bosco Cristo Rey sponsor. “It’s a work-study program that I haven’t seen in other high schools that produces such high-caliber students. …We’ve had some exceptional students over the years.” “I want a bigger, brighter future,” says 16-year-old Ambar Paulino-Polanco, the daughter of Dominican immigrants. “I know I’m capable of anything I set my mind to. This program was a good way to show me that.” D&B Brian Dabbs is a freelance writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. MAY/JUNE 2013
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DIVERSITY NEWS
BY SHERYL L . AXELROD
DISREGARD DIVERSITY AT YOUR PERIL: DIVERSITY AS A FINANCIAL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THE DATA IS IN: DIVERSITY IS FAR MORE PROFITABLE THAN LESS DIVERSE BUSINESS MODELS SUPPOSEDLY, THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIVERSITY IS WEAK. IT’S MAINLY “WISHFUL THINKING.” Th at’s what the Chicago-based
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Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession concluded in its 2011 report “The Business Case for Diversity: Reality or Wishful Th inking.” The IILP’s review of data was so comprehensive, the study was widely accepted as defi nitive. There’s just one problem: the report never actually took a direct look at whether diversity is profitable. The IILP considered a number of factors: whether corporate law departments incentivize law firm diversity; whether corporations disengage from law firms that fail diversity standards; whether corporate clients ask about law firms’ performance in becoming diverse; and how many lawyers are told they received business as a result of their firm’s diversity. These are all important issues, but they don’t directly speak to the profitability of diversity. If you want to know whether one product is more profitable than others, you could ask consumers whether they will buy it, but that won’t answer the question. You could ask them whether they will stop going to stores that don’t sell it, but that won’t answer the question, either. You need to look at customer, revenue, and profit figures. The same holds true for the business case for diversity. The issue is whether diversity is more, less, or equally profitable than less diverse business models. Specifically, the issue is whether it is more profitable for law fi rms to have diverse leaders—people who look more like the composition of the legal community in terms of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, age, disability, and other metrics—or whether law fi rms with more homogeneous leaders are more profitable. You can’t fi nd out from asking in-house counsel whether they seek out diverse law fi rms. You have to look at which companies are more profitable. DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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MOVING PAST ASSUMPTIONS: DIVERSE COMPANIES OUTPERFORM THEIR HOMOGENEOUS COUNTERPARTS
HAVING WOMEN AT THE TOP PAYS
A number of recent business studies including a 2011 research report in Catalyst, Inc. by Nancy M. Carter and Harvey M. Wagner entitled “The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards (2004-2008),” looked at the financial returns of companies with three or more women on the board. The findings are astounding. Those companies outperform companies with all-male boards by 60 percent in return on invested capital, 84 percent in return on sales, and 60 percent in return on equity. Compare the Fortune 500 companies with the most women on their boards with those with the least. The companies with the most outperformed those with the least by 66 percent in return on invested capital, 42 percent in return on sales, and 53 percent in return on equity. Firms with few to no women on the board should take stock of the enormous economic advantage their competitors with more women in charge have over them. You can see it looking at Fortune 500 companies. The positive influence of female board members is so strong that as the percentage of women board members of Fortune 100-500 companies drop, so does the success of the companies, according to the Catalyst, Inc. report “2010 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners.” Women represent 18 percent (nearly one in five) of board members of the most successful U.S. companies, the Fortune 100 companies. Catalyst found that as you move from Fortune 100 companies to their slightly less successful Fortune 200 counterparts, the number of women on the board decreases to 16.7 percent. Fortune 300 companies have slightly fewer women on the board, 14.9 percent and so on down to Fortune 500 companies. Less women in MCCA.COM
leadership equates with less financial success. This squares with what Brian S. Moskal discussed in “Women Make Better Managers” in Industry Week in 1997. Looking at over 900 managers at top U.S. corporations, “women’s effectiveness as managers, leaders, and teammates outstripped the abilities of their male counterparts in 28 of 31 managerial skill areas.” Forward-thinking companies like The Coca-Cola Company are paying attention. Catalyst reports in “The Coca-Cola Company—Global Women’s Initiative: Women as the Real Drivers of the 21st Century” (2013): “Externally, 5by20 is Coca-Cola’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company’s value chain by 2020 [thus the name, 5by20 for 5 million women entrepreneurs
According to research cited in a 2009 article, “Does Diversity Pay?: Race, Gender, and the Business Case for Diversity” by Cedric Herring in the American Sociological Review, on average, the most racially diverse companies bring in nearly 15 times more revenues than the least racially diverse. In fact, for every percentage increase in racial or gender diversity up to that represented in the relevant population, sales revenues increase approximately 9 and 3 percent, respectively. Racial diversity, Herring found, is a better determinant of sales revenue and customer numbers than company size, age, or number of employees at a worksite. Companies with the highest rates of racial diversity reported having on average 35,000 customers, whereas companies with the least racial diversity reported having only 22,700. According to
THE COMPANIES WITH THE MOST WOMEN ON THEIR BOARDS OUTPERFORMED THOSE WITH THE LEAST BY 66% IN RETURN ON INVESTMENT CAPITAL, 42% IN RETURN ON SALES, AND 53% IN RETURN ON EQUITY. by 2020]. Through this effort, Coca-Cola helps women overcome barriers that they face in the marketplace and grow their businesses sustainably. Coca-Cola’s initiative has significantly increased women’s representation around the world. Between 2008 and 2012, the proportion of women leaders increased from 23 percent to 29 percent among senior-level women and the proportion of immediate pipeline women increased from 28 percent to 34 percent, with consistent increases across regions. Globally, Coca-Cola’s external recruitment of women leaders rose from 13 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2011. The representation of women in Coca-Cola’s key assessment and development programs rose from 21 percent in 2007 to 49 percent in 2011. The reach of 5by20 has recently expanded to include 12 countries; by 2011, it had impacted 130,000 women, and was on track to reach 300,000 women by the end of 2012.” RACIAL DIVERSITY AT THE TOP PAYS, TOO
Companies with greater racial diversity at the top leave their more homogeneous counterparts in the dust, too. MCCA.COM
Herring, companies that even only marginally increase their racial diversity gain an average of over 400 customers. IBM: AN EXAMPLE OF DIVERSITY AND REVENUE GROWTH
Diversity represents a competitive advantage, and you can measure it financially just as IBM did. As a result of implementing a diversity task force initiative, IBM grew its female executives ranks by 370 percent, its ethnic minority executives ranks by 233 percent, and the number of selfidentified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender executives by 733 percent. The result, as David A. Thomas wrote in “Diversity as Strategy” in the Harvard Business Review in 2004, was stunning: “[T]he work of the women’s task force and other constituencies led IBM to establish its Market Development organization, a group focused on growing the market of multicultural and women-owned businesses in the United States. … In 2001, the organization’s activities accounted for more than $300 million in revenue compared with MAY/JUNE 2013
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$10 million in 1998. Based on a recommendation from the people with disabilities task force, in October 2001 IBM launched an initiative focused on making all of its products more broadly accessible to take advantage of new legislation—an amendment to the federal Rehabilitation Act requiring that government agencies make accessibility a criterion for awarding federal contracts. IBM executives estimate this effort will produce more than a billion dollars in revenue during the next five to 10 years.” Workforce diversity helped IBM attract a more diverse base of customers that included women and minorityowned businesses. As Thomas put it: “IBM’s efforts to develop the client base among womenowned businesses ... quickly expanded to include a focus on Asian, black, Hispanic, mature (senior citizens), and Native American markets. The Market Development organization has grown revenue in the company’s Small and MediumSized Business Sales and Marketing organization from $10 million in 1998 to hundreds of millions of dollars in 2003.” When IBM became more diverse, its revenues skyrocketed. DIVERSITY: THE POTENTIAL FOR MUCH HIGHER LAW FIRM PROFITS
The benefits corporate America reaps from diversity apply to law firms. Douglas E. Brayley and Eric S. Nguyen, authors of “Good Business: A Market-Based Argument for Law Firm Diversity” in The Journal of the Legal Profession in 2009, studied the data from the 200 highest-grossing firms (the Am Law 200). Highly diverse law firms report, on average, much higher profits per partner and revenue per lawyer than the rest of the Am Law 200 firms. Even controlling for hours, location, and firm size, the study’s authors found that “differences in diversity are significantly correlated with differences in financial performance.” In fact, according to the study, “a firm ranked in the top quarter in the diversity rankings will generate more than $100,000 of additional profit per partner than a peer firm of the same size in the same city, with the same hours and leverage but a diversity ranking in the bottom quarter of firms.” What is stunning about these figures is that the most diverse of the Am Law 200 firms could be far more diverse and inclusive than they currently are. All of the top firms are not bringing minorities into the partnership ranks at the numbers they should. For example, the firm Wilson Sonsini DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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Goodrich & Rosati has 25.4 percent minority lawyers, but less than one in five (18.5%) minority partners. The $100,000 per partner additional profit differential could presumably be far greater. In addition, money at law firms is of course not equally distributed among partners. Those at the top are paid far more than the partners below them. That means those in the highest positions of law firms, those in the best position to change the direction of their firms, have the greatest economic incentive to embrace diversity and inclusion. They stand to profit the most from it. To do so, they should not only recruit diverse talent, but retain it, engage it, promote it, and invite it to the management table. The reason diversity works is that when a company’s leadership becomes more diverse, far more changes than the fact the people in it become a melting pot microcosm of their community. Studies show the company performs better. There may be a host of reasons why. Perhaps women and minorities see that they have a real opportunity for advancement and become more motivated to not only stay in the company, but invest themselves in its success. Maybe when companies become more diverse, they are better able to solve problems and seize potential opportunities. There is data suggesting so. According to Scott E. Page, author of the 2007 book The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies, on almost every measure, greater racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse workplace teams function more effectively than more homogenous teams. In fact, Page found diverse thinkers (defined as those with different educational backgrounds, experience levels, and/or racial, gender, and ethnic identities) are markedly better at solving problems than teams selected for their intellectual ability. The diverse team’s collective intelligence, he found, is generally significantly greater than a team whose individual members are uniformly “smart.” According to Deloitte, Only skin deep? “Re-examining the Business Case MCCA.COM
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for Diversity” (Sep. 2011), the most plausible explanation for these findings is that teams with members from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives avoid “groupthink,” whereas non-diverse teams approach problems from the same angle. COMPANIES THAT DON’T DIVERSIFY FACE GREATER EXPOSURE
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Diversity not only holds great potential to increase law firm profitability; openness to candidates from diverse backgrounds—for employment, raises, bonuses, equity, etc.—is essential to minimizing a law firm’s exposure. In December 2012, Sanford Heisler LLP, which had won a massive judgment against Novartis for gender discrimination, announced that it was representing Francine Griesing, founder of Griesing Law LLC, in a discrimination suit against Greenberg Traurig LLP, where she had previously been a partner. Griesing claims that Greenberg Traurig officials denied her the compensation, promotions, and support that the firm accorded to less-productive partners. Sanford Heisler is seeking class action certification for the 215 current and former female Greenberg Traurig partners who could join the lawsuit. The lawsuit followed a multiyear investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that concluded, according to a Sanford Heisler news release, that there is “reasonable cause to support class-wide claims of gender discrimination in compensation” and “reasonable cause to support claims that women are treated less favorably in the terms and conditions of their employment.”
Griesing’s lawsuit should be a wake-up call to law firms engaging in discriminatory practices. A great many law firms fall into that category. While just under one-third of lawyers reported in the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Directory of Legal Employers are women—32.67 percent in 2012—female lawyers make up only 15 percent of equity partners, and female equity partners are paid 86 percent of what their male peers are, according to a study of the nation’s 200 largest firms conducted by the National Association of Women Lawyers and the NAWL Foundation using data provided by law firms. The numbers are worse for women of color. NALP said women of color made up a mere 2.16 percent of law firm partners in 2012. When they added male attorneys of color the numbers improved, but were still not representative of minorities’ numbers in law firms. Minorities account for 6.71 percent of partners in the nation’s major law firms whereas they “make up 12.91 percent of lawyers reported in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.” On average, law firms are failing to promote women and minorities to partnership in representative numbers, and law firms are paying those that are equity partners less than their white, non-diverse male counterparts. I minimize companies’ exposure to employment and general liability matters for a living. A great way companies can lower their exposure is by implementing practices to correct these discrepancies. Law firms should conduct internal audits and actively work to lessen the chance women and minorities will be passed over for opportunities they deserve or treated less favorably in other terms or conditions of their employment. From corporate America to American law firms, the business case for diversity is overwhelming. Law firms that hold women and minorities back from their full potential not only expose themselves to liability, they prevent themselves from potentially multiplying their customer base and earning greatly increased profits. They lose out on the great financial competitive advantage that diversity and inclusion represents. D&B
TEAMS WITH MEMBERS FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS, EXPERIENCES, AND PERSPECTIVES AVOID “GROUPTHINK,” WHEREAS NON-DIVERSE TEAMS APPROACH PROBLEMS FROM THE SAME ANGLE. DIVERSIT Y & THE BAR®
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Sheryl L. Axelrod is president of The Axelrod Firm PC, a four-attorney, certified womanowned law firm in Philadelphia. The firm is a member of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). MCCA.COM
IN CLOSING...
Q
You practiced at an AmLaw 100 litigation firm. What did you learn from the Big Law experience?
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Paul Loh is a founding member of Willenken Wilson Loh & Delgado LLP. He has tried over 40 jury trials to verdict. He spoke to Diversity & the Bar about his firm and his career.
For purposes of starting and running my firm, the most useful thing I learned from the Big Law experience is the importance of having formal systems, policies, and accountability. I’ve seen many smart people I know who started or run small firms falter or struggle because they focused only on “getting the case” or thought that a small firm can be managed with informal or loose rules. A small firm is still a business. To thrive, a small firm, like a big firm, needs regular and data/fact-driven assessments of all aspects of the business, from human resources, productivity, and managing, to fee arrangements, attorney and staff performance, and case results. You helped found your firm in 2002. Why did you choose to start your own practice? I wanted to build the premier minority-owned trial firm in the country. Starting with my generation, I saw a marked growth in the number of minorities admitted to elite law schools and entering the legal profession, tracking the emerging diversification of society in general. At the same time, trial was becoming a lost art and there was nobody—minority or otherwise—seeking to fill this critical void. I saw this as a remarkable opportunity for me and my firm. What are the benefits of a small firm? I can speak only to the benefits of my firm. Being a relatively small size, we have thorough quality control.
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“TRIAL WAS BECOMING A LOST ART AND THERE WAS NOBODY—MINORITY OR OTHERWISE— SEEKING TO FILL THIS CRITICAL VOID. I SAW THIS AS A REMARKABLE OPPORTUNITY FOR ME AND MY FIRM.”—PAUL LOH Paul Loh 49
This means we have the luxury of being highly selective in building our ranks with elite lawyers who are committed to a singular mission: getting winning results from our clients. Our lawyers consistently take a trial-oriented approach to our cases, seeking to establish and assess the “story” of each case as early on as possible, which invariably leads to earlier and more optimal disposition of cases, either through dispositive motions or settlement. And, if the matter should proceed to trial, we will present to the jury a case that has been thoroughly developed and vetted—and worked and re-worked—starting since day one. What are you most proud of in your career? The currency of the legal business is trust. It takes a long time to earn, but can be lost in a moment. I take great personal satisfaction each time a client engages us for a matter, especially when it’s a repeat client. Every time a client retains a law firm—particularly if the firm is not a large, branded firm—the client risks some of his or her own credibility by placing their trust in the lawyer. When a client calls me to engage our firm for a case, or just to seek advice or a second opinion on a case someone else is handling, I feel immense satisfaction in knowing that we’ve earned the client’s trust to get that call. Knowing
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you’ve done right by the client is an enormously rewarding feeling. You immigrated to the U.S. when you were young and have established yourself as a nationally recognized attorney. Did diversity and inclusion programs help your education or career? In terms of my personal education and career, to my knowledge I have not benefitted from diversity or inclusion programs. In terms of my firm, I know we’ve benefitted greatly from clients who have the wisdom and judgment to know that large or majority-owned firms do not have a monopoly on elite lawyers, and the courage of conviction to give us a chance to earn their trust. And by this I don’t mean giving a chance merely on small or routine cases, but rather complex and substantial litigation matters that require the best and brightest talent. Diversity is certainly a key part of this calculus. Ultimately, I think we’ve benefitted most from clients who realized we can do the job as well—if not better—than large or majority-owned firms, and at a rational price. In today’s economy, it is simply smart business for clients to hire us because we are great lawyers, who also happen to be minorities. D&B
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MOVERS & SHAKERS
COMPILED BY JOSHUA H. SHIELDS
MIGUEL RIVERA
WILLARD K. TOM
CHRISTIAN A. GARZA
LINDA LU
Division Senior Vice President & General Counsel Payless ShoeSource
Partner Morgan Lewis
General Counsel & Corporate Secretary Cosentino North America
Vice President of Litigation & Chief Litigation Officer Nationwide C
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Miguel Rivera is now division senior vice president and general counsel for Payless ShoeSource. He is a member of the senior leadership team; a seasoned legal executive with multi-industry experience that includes private practice and transactional experience, class action and product liability litigation, intellectual property, insurance litigation, and state government experience. Prior to joining Payless in 2011, Rivera held several positions at Walmart that included experience in outside counsel management and national responsibility for Walmart’s product liability and insurance litigation. He was also the Commissioner of Labor for the state of Indiana – a cabinet level position. He holds a J.D. and a B.A. from the University of Illinois.
Willard K. Tom is a partner in Morgan Lewis’ antitrust practice. He has worked in the antitrust field for more than 30 years, both in private practice and the government. He returns to Morgan Lewis after serving as general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission for four years. Tom and his deputies represented the FTC in court and provided legal counsel to the FTC, the operating bureaus, and other offices. He is one of the principal drafters of the Department of Justice and FTC’s “Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property.” He earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1979 and his A.B., cum laude, from Harvard University in 1975.
Christian Garza has been named general counsel and corporate secretary for Cosentino North America, headquartered in Stafford, Texas. Cosentino North America is a subsidiary of the Spanish company Cosentino S.A., which is the world’s leading producer of quartz surfaces and is most well-known for its Silestone and Sensa brands. Garza, 36, leads the Legal Department for Cosentino’s North American operations, which includes its many Cosentino centers and fabrication facilities. Previously, he worked nearly six years as senior corporate counsel for CITGO Petroleum Corporation in Houston. Garza received his B.A. with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998 and his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2001.
Nationwide announced that Linda Lu will join Nationwide Insurance and the Office of the Chief Legal and Governance Officer as the company’s vice president of litigation and chief litigation officer. In this position, Lu will serve as chief litigator where she will lead a team of in-house attorneys and a robust network of external litigation partners. Lu comes to Nationwide from Allstate Insurance Company where she most recently served as the lead legal partner for their Claims organization. Prior to joining Allstate, she spent eight years as a litigation and corporate attorney with Lowis & Gellen in Chicago. Lu holds an undergraduate degree in public policy from the University of Chicago, and earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Please send your submissions to our Movers & Shakers feature to joshshields@mcca.com Please include a high-resolution photo (300 dpi or greater), along with an electronic version of the applicable announcement.
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Taking diversity and inclusion to the next level At Ogletree Deakins, we believe that our philosophy and practice of inclusion—soliciting, valuing, and incorporating the myriad viewpoints of our lawyers—make the firm more creative, stronger, and better able to address the evolving issues in the workplace. With more than 650 attorneys in over 40 offices in the United States and Europe, Ogletree Deakins is one of the nation’s largest labor and employment law firms, exclusively representing management.
FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT OGLETREE DEAKINS’ INCLUSION EFFORTS, PLEASE CONTACT: Michelle P. Wimes, Director of Professional Development and Inclusion michelle.wimes@ogletreedeakins.com | Phone: (816) 471-1301 | www.ogletreedeakins.com