DIVERSITY & THE BAR
®
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014
2014 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Honorable Cruz Reynoso
A CHAMPION FOR JUSTICE CAREGIVER DISCRIMINATION MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION LATINO LUMINARIES MCCA ANNUAL DIVERSITY AWARDS
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Chicago Academy for Leadership & Inclusion Do You Have 90 Minutes to Learn about Implicit Bias? Please join MCCA on October15th for its Academy for Leadership and Inclusion training. MCCA will present this 90-minute training. MCCA offers this training complimentary to corporate members and members of the Firm Affiliate Network (FAN). MCCA’s 2014 Academy for Leadership and Inclusion is a groundbreaking, interactive 90-minute training program designed to focus on hidden biases, how they impact the workplace and what can be done to overcome them. Space is limited, so please register early at www.mcca.com/academy.
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DIVERSITY & THE BAR
2014 MCCA AWARD WINNERS EMPLOYER OF CHOICE AWARD
®
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
GEORGE B. VASHON INNOVATOR AWARD
PAULA L. ETTELBRICK AWARD
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DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 MCCA.COM
● 24 MCCA’s 2014 Award Winners The MCCA Diversity Gala, held this past summer, is the annual national awards program honoring the foremost corporate law departments from across the nation for diversity, industry leadership and achievements in their legal department diversity programs. Find out who the Employer of Choice Award winners are, along with the Thomas L. Sager Award and Paula L. Ettelbrick Award winners, what made them stand out among nominees and what you can learn from their diversity and inclusion programs. BY DIANNE HAYES
FEATURES
Latino Luminaries
● 20 MCCA’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner MCCA’s 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Justice Cruz Reynoso. Justice Reynoso is the first Latino Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court (1982-1987) and is currently a professor emeritus of law at the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 2000, and the Hispanic National Bar Association’s highest honor, the LincolnJuarez Award, among many other honors and awards. Justice Reynoso has dedicated his legal, judiciary and educational work to promote civic engagement and defend the civil rights of our society’s most disenfranchised. By Dianne Hayes
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● 40 Latino Luminaries DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 MCCA.COM
Latinos are the second fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, at 17 percent, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. They are also the largest minority group at 53 million—and that number is expected to skyrocket to 128.8 million by 2060. Here, we spotlight lawyers who are working through their leadership and mentorship to be visible success stories to young Hispanics. BY MELANIE PADGETT POWERS
VISIT WWW.MCCA.COM FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS, AWARDS AND RESEARCH.
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● COLUMNS 6 Notes from the President & CEO 8 Perseverance in Profile
Highlighting the contributions and talents of attorneys with disabilities. Leonard DuBoff BY TOM CALARCO
12 Spotlighting
Lorri L. Jean of the Los Angeles LGBT Center BY LYDIA LUM
16 Lawyer’s Lantern Illuminating professional guidance for your career. An Interview with Echo Hawk
● DEPARTMENTS 48 Movers & Shakers
● 44 Caregiver Discrimination: It’s Not Just about Women and Children Anymore New situations are impacting the rapidly growing area of the law known as family responsibilities discrimination or caregiver discrimination. Relying still on a patchwork of federal, state and local laws how does this impact your workplace? How can employers stay proactive? BY JONATHAN GRONER
● 46 Staples’ GC Mentors Staff with Next Generation Leaders in Mind General Counsel Mike Williams has a stellar record of creating successful, diverse legal teams. Find out how he works in tandem with Associate General Counsel Cristina Gonzalez to create opportunities for leadership and exposure to the nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. BY JENNIFER J. SALOPEK
VISIT WWW.MCCA.COM FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS, AWARDS AND RESEARCH.
MCCA® Board of Directors Stuart Alderoty Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel HSBC North America Holdings Inc.
Samuel M. Reeves Senior Vice President, General Counsel Walmart US Legal
Vernon G. Baker, II Former Senior Vice President & General Counsel Meritor, Inc.
Carlos Rincon Partner Rincon Law Group, P.C.
Michelle Banks Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer Gap Inc. A.B. Cruz, III Executive Vice President and General Counsel Emergent Biosolutions, Inc. Clarissa Cerda Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary LifeLock, Inc. Anthony K. Greene Executive Vice President Jamison Insurance Group Jean Lee Vice President & Assistant General Counsel JP Morgan Chase Legal Department Don H. Liu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, & Secretary Xerox Corporation Hinton J. Lucas (Ret.) Vice President & Assistant General Counsel DuPont Company Robbie E. B. Narcisse Vice President of Global Ethics and Business Practices Pitney Bowes Inc. Corporate Legal Department
Advertising For advertising inquiries, contact M.J. Mrvica Associates, Inc. at mjmrvica@mrvica.com MCCA® Membership Please visit www.mcca.com for membership and other information. General Information and Address Changes Send your questions, complaints, and compliments to MCCA®, Kim Howard, CAE, Editor in Chief, kimhoward@mcca.com. Address changes should be sent to MCCA’s Vice President of Membership and Development at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. Permissions and Reprints Reproduction of Diversity & the Bar in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The Copyright Act of 1976 prohibits the reproduction by photocopy machine or any other meaans of any portion of this issue, except with the permission of MCCA. To obtain permission, contact: Kim Howard, CAE, Editor-in-Chief, kimhoward@mcca.com. Copyright Copyright® 2014 by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Diversity & the Bar is published six times a year and is distributed to supporters and subscribers, 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004. The information contained in this publiation has been provided to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA®) by a variety of independent sources. While MCCA makes every effort to present accurate and reliable information, MCCA does not endorse, approve, or certify such information, nor does MCCA guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or chronological sequence
Thomas L. Sager Partner Ballard Spahr Robin Sangston VP/Chief Compliance Officer Cox Communications, Inc. Kenneth S. Siegel Chief Administrative Officer & General Counsel Starwood Hotels & Resorts Mary E. Snapp Corporate VP, Deputy General Counsel Microsoft Business Development and Evangelism Lawrence P. Tu Senior EVP and Chief Legal Officer CBS Corporation Neil Wilcox General Counsel—Chase Card Services JP Morgan Chase & Co. Simone Wu Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer Choice Hotels International, Inc. Joseph K. West President & CEO Minority Corporate Counsel Association
of any such information. Use of such information on the readers’ part is entirely voluntary and reliance upon it should be undertaken only upon independent review and due diligence. References herein to any commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise shall not constitute or imply endorsement, preference, recommendation, or the favor of MCCA. MCCA (including its employees and agents) assumes no responsibility for consequence resulting from the use of the information herein, or in any respect for the content of such information, including (but not limited to) errors or omissions, the accuracy or reasonableness of factual or other data, including statistical or scientific assumptions, studies or conclusions, the defamatory nature of statements, ownership of copyright or other intellectual property rights, and the violation of property, privacy, or personal rights of others. MCCA is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims and denies liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance upon such information. No guarantees or warranties, including (but not limited to) any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose, are made by MCCA with respect to such information. Copyright in this publication, including all articles and editorial information contained herein, is exclusively owned by MCCA, and MCCA reserves all rights to such information. MCCA is a tax-exempt corporation organized in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Its tax ID number is 13-3920905.
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MCCA® Law Department Members The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) acknowledges the support of the following law departments whose financial contributions have helped to advance the goal of furthering diversity in the legal profession. 3M Company AARP Accenture LLP AECOM AGCO Corporation Allstate Insurance Company Altria Client Services American Airlines American Express Company AON Corporation Areas USA, Inc. AT&T Avis Budget Group Bechtel Corporation Becton, Dickinson and Company BNY Mellon Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corporation Booz Allen Hamilton BP America Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company CALIBR, global leadership network Capital Legal Solutions, LLC Capital One Financial Corporation Cargill Inc. Carter’s, Inc. Catalent Pharma Solutions CBIC Construction & Development, LLC CH2M Hill Chevron Corporation Choice Hotels International, Inc. CIGNA Corporation CITGO Petroleum Corporation Colgate-Palmolive Company Compass Group, The Americas ConAgra Foods, Inc. ConocoPhillips Cox Communications Inc. Crawford & Company Darden Restaurants, Inc. DC Water and Sewer Authority Deere & Company Dell Inc. DHL America Diageo North America, Inc. Dignity Health DiversityInc Media, L.L.C.
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Leo Burnett Company, Inc. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Lifelock, Inc. LifeVantage Corporation Liquidity Services, Inc. Macy’s Inc. MAHLE Industries, Incorporated ManpowerGroup Marriott International, Inc. MassMutual Financial Group McDonald’s Corporation Medifast, Inc. Merck & Co., Inc. MetLife Microsoft Corporation MillerCoors Mondelez International - [Formerly Kraft] Monsanto Company Morehouse College Morgan Stanley Nabholz Construction Services National Grid Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company Navistar, Inc. Neighborhood Defender Service New York Life Insurance Company Newegg Inc. NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company Northrop Grumman Corporation Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited Office Depot, Inc. Pacific Gas and Electric Company Pepco Holdings, Inc. PepsiCo Inc. Pfizer Inc. Pitney Bowes Inc. Porzio Life Sciences, LLC PPG Industries, Inc. PRAXAIR, Inc. PreCash Premier Media Inc. Prudential Financial Quest Diagnostics Incorporated RBS Americas Reckitt Benckiser Inc. Reed Elsevier Inc.
Rockwell Collins Rolls Royce North America, Inc. Rosetta Stone Inc. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Sara Lee Corporation Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. Sears Holding Company Sempra Energy ServiceMesh, Inc. Shell Oil Company Sony Electronics Inc. Southeastern Freight Lines, Inc. Southern California Edison Company Spanish Broadcasting Systems Inc. Staples, Inc. Starbucks Coffee Company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Synopsis, Inc. Tanenbaum Harber of Florida, LLC Target Corporation Tessera North America, Inc. The Brookings Institution The Church Pension Fund The Clorox Company The Coca-Cola Company The Conference Board, Inc. The Vanguard Group, Inc. The Walt Disney Company The Williams Companies, Inc. Towers Watson Tyson Foods, Inc. UBS AG UnitedHealth Group United Parcel Service United Technologies Corporation U.S. Foodservice, Inc. Verizon Communications Walmart Stores, Inc. Waste Management WellPoint, Inc. Wells Fargo & Company Wireless Generation Inc. Xcel Energy Xerox Corporation Xylem Inc. (Formally ITT Corporation) Yazaki North America Inc.
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Use of MCCA Law Firm Affiliate Network’s logo for the firm’s business cards, ads, website, etc. (under licensae agreement).
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Listed as a Firm Affiliate Network (FAN) member on the MCCA website—this will be regularly circulated to MCCA member companies who care about diversity for their information and reference.
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Ability to post bios and practice information on the firm’s diverse attorneys in the Diverse utside Counsel Database (DOCD) that is marketed to MCCA member companies for outside counsel selection. Access to MCCA’s Career Center. Firms will be able to post jobs at low cost and review resumes at no cost.
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Notes From the President & CEO
CHAMPIONING DIVERSITY & INCLUSION WITH A ROADMAP YOU CAN USE THE LAST FEW MONTHS HAVE NOT BEEN KIND to leadership figures in the wide world of sports. The well-publicized racist comments and actions of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling were followed by the revelation of even more bigoted comments from Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson and General Manager Danny Ferry about that teams’ fans and a minority player. And of course, we are now familiar with the decisions of embattled NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who—in a league where player concussions and head injuries are of paramount concern—saw video evidence that one of his league’s players knocked his fiancé out cold with a vicious punch to the head and decided that a mere two game suspension was punishment enough for that player. Just think, some people actually predicted that Michael Sam’s sexuality was going to be the big “distraction” in the sports world this fall. These issues carry critical lessons about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In each instance, at the top of the food chain we witnessed tone deafness and outright hostility toward women and minorities. With the real or threatened departure of sponsors and forced sale of ownership interests, the absence of leadership on diversity and inclusion issues resulted not only in embarrassment and significant—even
permanent—brand damage, but also actual risk to the enterprise and tangible financial losses. These episodes show that a meaningful, sustained commitment to diversity and inclusion can actually serve to mitigate risk. The corollary, of course, is that the absence of such commitment can result in serious consequences. Is there still anyone who questions whether there is a business case to be made for diversity? If you want shining examples of diverse and inclusive workplaces, then look no further than this issue in which we showcase our 2014 Diversity Gala Award winners. Our Employer of Choice Awards, Thomas L. Sager Award and George B. Vashon Innovator Award winners are the newsmakers worth reading about. If you want to understand how one person can make a difference in our diversity and inclusion efforts, then reading about our Lifetime Achievement Award Winner and Paula J. Ettelbrick Award winner is worth your time. Find out what these individuals, companies and law firms are doing to champion a diverse and inclusive workplace and see how you might implement similar strategies. JOSEPH K. WEST President & CEO MCCA_law
Publications Staff President & CEO Joseph K. West
Advertising M.J. Mrvica Associates, Inc.
Founder and Publisher Emeritus Lloyd M. Johnson Jr.
Design/Art Direction BonoTom Studio, Inc.
Editor-in-Chief Kimberly A. Howard, CAE
6 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
MCCA.COM
MCCA® Staff Mahzarine Chinoy David Chu Donna Crook Charles Hollins Jessica Martinez Aracely Muñoz Petrich Andrea Pimm
www.facebook.com/mcca.law
Perseverance in Profile
LEONARD D. DUBOFF Author of the Law BY TOM CALARCO
The life of Portland, Oregon attorney Leonard DuBoff took a fortuitous turn in a chemistry lab when an explosion blinded him, dismembered his right hand, and caused partial loss of fingers in his left hand. DuBoff had been a brilliant electrical engineering student at Hofstra, but he didn’t let the mishap derail his aspirations.
8 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
MCCA.COM
“I
became depressed, and that lasted for about a day,” he says, dismissing the incident, because he wasn’t going to allow it to interfere with his life. It did cause a change in his plans to continue working as an engineer. He had worked in the engineering field with such New York companies as Bulova and Vaneiderstine, for which he designed a conveyor system that separated meat scraps into their components in order to produce products such as glue, chicken feed and bone meal. But without sight, he could no longer design. He returned to school and completed his engineering degree at Hofstra University where he graduated magna cum laude and received an award from President Johnson for the then highest average in natural science in the country. Since he could no longer work as an engineer, he began looking for another profession. His brother, then studying at Brooklyn Law School, suggested the law. DuBoff brought his prodigious intellectual talents to Brooklyn Law School and didn’t look back. Graduating summa cum laude and with the highest average in the
history of that school, he also was the research editor of the school law review and won the Moot Court award. Following graduation, DuBoff focused his interest on corporate law. “I did fine art painting before I was blinded,” DuBoff explains his love for art, “and I worked for a short time for a New York law firm, where I got the opportunity to work on a case involving artists. They said, ‘You can relate to these people, so go talk to them,’ and I got to work with artists and museums.” DuBoff soon after moved west and taught for a year at Stanford Law School where he says the idea of exploring the field of art law germinated. At the time, little had been written about this field, but he changed that, becoming a leading pioneer on that subject. Following his year at Stanford, DuBoff took a position at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon in 1972, where he taught for 22 years and turned out article after article in magazines, periodicals, and law journals that led to the books that he began writing in the late 1970s. It worked out well for DuBoff, who has written more than 30 books, most of which are in multiple editions, and hundreds of articles. He lectures widely on many facets of the law. “Law is not only my profession, but my hobby. I enjoy reading about the law and writing about the law. I do it on weekends, evenings and holidays,” he says. He even works when he exercises, listening to an audio player in the morning when he jogs, and when he does his evening weightlifting regimen. This is not surprising, considering that he also handles a full-time law practice, in addition to his writing and lecturing. Among his books are many reference works that require periodic updating. He also created a series of books for 13 professions including photographers, writers, doctors, craft artists and restaurant owners, called (The Law in Plain En-
glish)®. Perhaps his most important book is a comprehensive treatise on art law published by Oxford University Press. “The Deskbook of Art Law,” a two-volume treatise, which he is currently expanding into a third edition that will boast three volumes. Another book he is pleased to have written is one of the “nutshells” series used by students in law schools and published by West Publishing Group, “Art Law in a Nutshell.” Two editions of this book have been translated into Mandarin. It is currently being used in the People’s Republic of China. DuBoff loves sculpture, in part because it’s the type of art that he can feel with his one good hand, and tells a funny story about the time he took a class in sculpture. “I was teaching a class for undergraduates on art law at Portland State University, and they give you the opportunity to take a class, so I signed up for sculpture,” he says. “They were doing a live study with a nude model. I went into the class and the teacher, who knew I was blind, asked me, ‘What are you going to do, you can’t see her?’. I said I see with my left hand. He said, ‘You mean you’re going to touch her to see her?’ And I said, ‘yes,’ and he said, ‘I can’t allow
you to do that’. Of course, my wife wouldn’t have allowed it either.” After leaving Lewis and Clark, he formed his own law firm, the DuBoff Law Group, LLC, now the DuBoff Law Group, PC in Portland. DuBoff prefers a small firm and has never employed more than eight full-time attorneys and sometimes as few as two. But he has a close association with his brother Michael’s much larger firm, Ballon Stoll Bader & Nadler, P.C., in New York City; he also hires contract staff. Having been a professor for more than 20 years, he taught many of the practicing lawyers in Oregon. “We don’t do criminal and don’t do domestic relations, but we do almost everything else in the civil arena,” he says. “My specialty is complex business and intellectual property, and my passion is of course art law. I do everything with trademarks, everything with copyrights. I litigate patents; I don’t write them, but one of the contract lawyers in my office is a member of the patent bar and he does.” Typical of his cases was one in which he went after the federal government over a newly minted nickel. His client, a photographer, took a picture of the Oregon coast where Lewis and Clark wintered in 1805.
“Dream Court” depicts Candise DuBoff-Jones arguing her case before nine Supreme Court justices deemed the greatest to have sat on the bench. It symbolizes a connection between art and law.
MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 9
I feel bad for the person who allows their prejudice to get in the way of my good work. Hopefully, they will someday see the light and overcome their bigotry. It was downloaded by someone who submitted it to the U.S. Mint which chose it for use on one of the then new nickels. DuBoff successfully challenged the U.S. Mint for using it without permission and enabled his client to get credit for it. You might think that DuBoff’s only hobby is writing and the law. But you would be wrong. He is devoted to the Boy Scouts. He was an Eagle Scout as a boy and his wife is the Scoutmaster for the local Boy Scout troop. “Scouting is a great movement for youth and the country. It’s about leadership, perfecting your skills, and being a good citizen,” he says. DuBoff learned about the history of Native Americans as a boy through the Boy Scout’s Order of the Arrow, an honor society for campers that follows Indian culture. The unjust way they were treated by the American government drew his compassion. “I always felt I wanted to do something to help them,” he says. Today his law firm represents a consortium of Native Americans, the First People’s Fund. He also has taken an interest in Native American art and his adopted daughter is Native American. The Boys Scouts recently gave DuBoff the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. Recipients need to have been an Eagle Scout as a boy, and 25 years must have passed during which a candidate has forged a highly successful career. Among former recipients were President Gerald Ford, U.S. Supreme Court justices and some of 10 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
the most distinguished men in the country. “I was truly honored,” DuBoff says when he learned of his selection. A connection with other cultures has become part of DuBoff’s life and this affinity for diversity is reflected in Duboff’s growing extended family. “My son-in-law, married to my oldest daughter, is Hispanic, and my son is married to a woman who is part African-American.” Another feather in the cap of his long legal career was the time he assisted the late Senator Ted Kennedy in writing federal legislation. “They asked if I would assist with passing the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA),” he says, “and I testified in Congress in support of it.” DuBoff’s success has allowed him to express his generosity and he has done this by commissioning works of art for donation. One of the most important art works which he commissioned was a bronze sculpture created by world-renowned Italian-American artist Lorenzo Ghiglieri, whose work appears in the Vatican Museum in Rome and the Presidential Museum in Washington, D.C. Only a handful of these pieces were cast. He arranged to have one for his brother which they donated to their alma mater, Brooklyn Law School, and he donated one to the Oregon Bar as well. It was designed by DuBoff as a memorial to their late sister, Candise DuBoff-Jones, an attorney who was murdered in court by the estranged husband of one of her clients. The MCCA.COM
three-foot square piece called “Dream Court” depicts DuBoff-Jones arguing her case before nine Supreme Court justices deemed the greatest to have sat on the bench, according to a 1984 survey of attorneys and legal scholars. It symbolizes a connection between art and law, he says. A recent event in which he took great satisfaction was the establishment of the Oregon’s World War II memorial on the 70th anniversary of D-Day. “It was dedicated on June 6 of this year and I was pleased to act as its attorney.” I also was able to honor my father.” DuBoff’s father, who assisted the 160,000 troops who landed on the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944, died a year after his accident. “He was the greatest guy I ever knew, and after he died, I had to succeed to honor his memory.” DuBoff’s life is not always easy. “There have been times when I have been told that because I am blind I would not be paid. In one case, a client hired me to assist her with a trademark case and her brother, a New York personal injury lawyer, guaranteed her bill. When he learned that I was blind, he refused to pay stating that he would not pay for work performed by a blind lawyer regardless of its quality. I have also had people refuse to retain me because of my disability. When these negative situations occur, I feel bad for the person who allows their prejudice to get in the way of my good work. Hopefully, they will someday see the light and overcome their bigotry. The Lord does not give anyone a heavier cross to carry than that person can,” says DuBoff and despite the prejudice he occasionally encounters he continues to move ahead. “It is better to light one small candle than to merely curse the darkness.” D&B TOM CALARCO is
a freelance writer based in Wildwood, Fla.He can be contacted at tomcalwriter@yahoo.com.
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Spotlighting
COMMITTED TO THE CAUSE Lorri L. Jean BY LYDIA LUM
Whenever Lorri L. Jean grows weary from long hours at work or exasperated by homophobic hecklers, she chats with youths who are accessing services at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where she is chief executive officer.
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he lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens and young adults turn to the nonprofit organization for everything from mentors to emergency shelter if their families have shunned them. The young people tell Jean how much the center means to them. “In a nanosecond, I remember why I put up with everything,” Jean says. “We can change the world without having to wait 30 years for something to come to fruition. I consider this work a privilege.” A former federal government attorney and administrator, she has held the top job at the Los Angeles center since 2003, her second stint. She manages a staff of 400 and an $80 million annual budget. The center provides clients of all ages a variety of culturally competent medical and mental health services, arts programming, legal help, job-search assistance and drug and alcohol abuse counseling. With roots dating to 1969, the center’s targeted constituencies include LGBT seniors, youths, immigrants and survivors of domestic violence. The organization currently has 42,000 client visits each month. Jean also helps leaders of peer agencies in other U.S. cities build capacity, increase fundraising and grow their programs. A nationally renowned activist in LGBT civil 12 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
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The Los Angeles LGBT Center, which employs more than 450 employees and 3,000 volunteers, provides services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world through programs that span four broad categories: health; social services and housing; culture and education; and leadership and advocacy.
rights, Jean battled sexual-orientation discrimination in the courts while still in law school. “Lorri is phenomenal,” says Dr. Marki Knox, a Los Angeles-area physician and co-chair of the LGBT center’s
board of directors. “I am constantly blown away by what we’re doing.” Board member Loren Ostrow, who has worked with Jean for about a decade, praises her no-nonsense approach.
“She is always on top of her game,” says Ostrow, a Los Angeles-area businessman and former partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP. As an example, he recalls a strategic planning session among board members and the center’s staff about six years ago. The talks turned to the shortage of parking for people frequenting The Village, a facility where the LGBT center hosts stage performances, art exhibitions and adult enrichment courses. Jean said that if the center acquired the property across the street from The Village, the parking problems would be solved.
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Despite their size, scope and determination to meet the growing demand for services, the Los Angeles LGBT Center remains a lean, fiscallydisciplined organization. They have earned a four-star Charity Navigator rating for four consecutive years and have been named the #1 local LGBT non-profit organization by Guidestar.
The comment sparked laughter around the table and confused facial expressions. The property was a 32,000-square-foot building—and occupied. This year, the LGBT center acquired the building and addressed more than just a parking shortage, Ostrow says. In May, Jean and her team launched a $25 million fundraising campaign to raze the building and develop a multi-use complex of affordable housing units for low-income seniors and young adults, part of an expansion of the LGBT center’s endeavors. About 65,000 residents of the city are LGBT and older than 65. Many have no children or grandchildren to care for them. “Lorri focuses on facts and information and is strategic in her thinking,” Ostrow says. “She doesn’t just run an organization but always thinks of what’s best for it years from now.” Jean never strays from the center’s mission despite the allure of Hollywood celebrities who lend their support or her meeting with U.S. presidents, Ostrow notes. “She remains focused on what the organization is about—serving the needs of the underserved.” Knox says that Jean once learned of a prospective donor in Nevada who couldn’t travel to the center. Despite not knowing the woman nor 14 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
the amount of the donation, Jean drove 250 miles to her home in a trailer park. Long after the donor made her one-time gift, Jean was still making periodic trips to check on her when she learned of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Jean helped arrange long-term care for the woman, who has no living relatives, Knox says. Jean cannot remember a time when she wasn’t speaking up for what seemed fair. She attributes that in part to growing up on her family’s farm, where she helped care for the livestock and at a young age, learned to drive a tractor. She was similarly self-reliant at school. In junior high, she petitioned for a rules change to allow girls to wear pants and in high school, served as editor of the student newspaper. At Arizona State University, she led a drive that resulted in the student health center providing birth control. As a first-year law student at Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown University, Jean, who’s lesbian, and two gay male classmates tried to register their Gay Rights Coalition group. The university refused to recognize them. Citing religious tenets, officials said that a Catholic university such as Georgetown did not have to do so, meaning the law students could not seek institutional funding for their activities. MCCA.COM
The three students disagreed because other university-backed campus groups held activities, such as abortion rights advocacy, that conflicted with Catholic doctrine. Jean and her gay classmates sued the university in 1980, citing the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, which prohibited sexual-orientation discrimination. Tuition rose while Jean was a student, and anonymous fliers on campus blamed it on the cost of fighting the lawsuit. Jean received multiple threats; one of her co-plaintiffs was physically assaulted. The students lost the case but appealed the decision. The appellate court overturned the ruling, saying that Georgetown didn’t have to endorse the Gay Rights Coalition but had to grant equal access to facilities and services that it gave to registered student organizations. By the time Georgetown settled the case, Jean had long since graduated and her career was well underway. Today, she recalls feeling anxious only once. As a student, she approached the Georgetown president, who threatened to prevent her from practicing law in the nation’s capital if she continued with the suit. “So many people couldn’t have overcome that kind of threat,” Jean says. “It did impact me and how I approached my career. I wasn’t setting my sights on corporate law,
A gratitude board in the Los Angeles LGBT Center shows the positive impact on individuals who use the center’s services.
and I already knew that people in the public interest sector would be more accepting of me.” After law school, she joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an attorney. Her decade there included three years as a deputy regional director overseeing FEMA’s disaster response and recovery operations in the West. She managed a 1,000-member staff and a $1 billion budget while championing LGBT causes outside her day job. “I knew activism would always be part of my life,” Jean says. “The avocation plus volunteerism led me to decide to work in our movement full time.” In 1993, she became CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where for six years she expanded services and purchased and renovated a $7 million facility. She then became executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, where she focused political efforts at the state and local level by building field operations that helped defeat most anti-LGBT ballot measures in 2001 and 2002. But by 2003, the Los Angeles cen-
ter needed a new chief executive, and Jean wanted to return. “I missed it. I could get positive feedback about our work on almost a daily basis.” During her second tenure, she has expanded programming and increased revenues by 100 percent. She was shocked when Georgetown University officials reached out and invited her to participate in a 2013 scholars symposium that celebrated and examined the legacy of the 1980 lawsuit. Her sole trip back to her alma mater in three decades was to visit a sympathetic law professor. Meanwhile, the university was boasting five LGBT campus groups, an annual Lavender Graduation ceremony for LGBT seniors and their allies and an LGBT resource center accessible to students, alumni and faculty. These and other amenities emerged in the years since the litigation ended. Furthermore, Jean’s two co-plaintiffs and classmates had died. “I had to participate because they could not,” she says. “It turned out the event had a healing aspect, and
I have buried a huge part of the hatchet.” Her most common advice to law school graduates who are sexual minorities is to be forthright when job hunting. “If you don’t tell the law firm up front, then people tend to feel deceived later. If you have been active in LGBT organizations, put them on your resumé. Don’t lead with it, but don’t shy away. Don’t be afraid to say you have a partner.” Jean pauses to recall that when she was finishing her studies at Georgetown, no major Washington, D.C. law firms had partners who were openly LGBT. Still, it seemed illogical to her then—as it does now—to remain silent about diversity in sexual orientation or gender identity. “Be honest about who you are,” she says. “Do not hide.” D&B A freelance writer and editor, LYDIA LUM is a former reporter for the Houston Chronicle and Fort Worth Star-Telegram who can be reached at lydialum999@yahoo.com.
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Lawyer’s Lantern
WALTER ECHO-HAWK, JR. BY LEKAN OGUNTOYINBO
Walter Echo-Hawk Jr., a tribal judge, scholar, author and activist, has been championing the rights of Native Americans for more than 40 years. As attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, he represented American Indian tribes, Alaskan natives and native Hawaiians on issues relating to Federal Indian law, including religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights and reburial rights. In recent years he has represented tribes from southeast Alaska in cases seeking repatriation of sacred objects. He has also represented Klamath Indians in a water rights case that seeks to preserve hunting, fishing and gathering rights. Echo-Hawk, 66, is a Supreme Court Justice for the Pawnee Nation. His books include “Battlefields and Burial Grounds” and “In the Courts of the Conqueror: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided.”
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You grew up on the Pawnee Reservation in Oklahoma. Paint a picture of your upbringing. How did your upbringing influence your decision to work in the legal profession?
I was born on the Pawnee Indian Reservation. My father was a Pawnee Indian from a large family that traces its lineage back to the mid-1700s on the Great Plains. My mother was a cowgirl from Pawnee, Okla., with a Swiss heritage. I grew-up and had most of my schooling in Pawnee until the middle of the ninth grade, when the family moved to a US Air Force base in Puerto Rico where my father was stationed as a flight crew member of the Strategic Air Command. I graduated from high school in Puerto Rico and returned to Pawnee to enroll at Oklahoma State University. During college, I and other young
It will take the work of the next generation to fully incorporate the UN human rights standards into US law and policy. Native American students were concerned about living conditions and the situation of Indian tribes in the late 1960’s, when the official Indian policy was Termination in the days when life was hard on Indian reservations under the thumb of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Red Power Movement was emerging in rural Oklahoma in the late 1960s, as Indian tribes worked to coax the federal government to abandon the destructive Termination policies and move toward policies favoring Indian self-determination. This nascent tribal sovereignty movement began in Indian country while the larger Civil Rights Movement was sweeping across mainstream America. At that time, my folks urged me to go to law school to help improve political and socio-economic conditions for the Pawnee tribal community. I became a lawyer so I could use the law to help meet Native American aspirations. I have been fortunate to do that legal work since 1973 to the present day. At a law conference late last year, many experts concluded that not a single country in the world is living up to UN Declaration on the Rights for Indigenous People. What are some ways in which the United States is particularly deficient in this area?
I have compared federal Indian law and policy in the United States with the human rights standards in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). That is the subject of my current book, “In The Light of Justice: The Rise of Human Rights in Native America and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” My comparative legal analysis concludes that US law and policy has several major shortcomings. First, the human right of self-determination is seen as an inherent human right by the declaration and as such, it is a fundamental inalienable and indefeasible human right norm that no nation can take away. But the Supreme Court has ruled that Congress has plenary power to abolish tribal government at will. The Supreme Court rulings in Native American freedom of religion cases do not comport with the United States’ obligations to protect freedom of religion under UN human rights treaties and norms found in modern international human rights law. Federal laws and policies requiring the federal government to consult with Indian tribes whenever a federal undertaking may impact a tribal interest fail to meet the UN human right of indigenous peoples to “free, prior, and informed
consent” before congress, the courts or federal agencies take an action that adversely impacts tribal interests. The human rights to land, environmental protection, medical care, economic parity, education, language, and public media human rights standards of the UNDRIP are not met in the United States under current law and policy. The list could go on. The United States started the process of improving Native American life with President Nixon’s Indian Self-Determination Policy in 1970 and the many laws passed since then. The UNDRIP standards show our nation how to complete that process. It will take the work of the next generation to fully incorporate the UN human rights standards into US law and policy. In recent years, there’s been a movement among some Native American legal scholars to better educate people about the legalities of land in Indian Country and to promote farming initiatives. Why is this important?
It is important for all land-based Indian Nations to optimize their agricultural resources and stride toward economic self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. To do that, attorneys must know the legal and policy framework for agriculture in Indian Country—including the USDA system and the economics of successful agriculture. Tribes are just now stepping into those uncharted waters. In addition to land matters, what are some of the other big structural legal hurdles that continue to hinder the progress of Native Americans? What steps are Native American groups taking to address some of these issues?
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Many nefarious legal principles, unjust legal fictions, notions of unfettered colonialism and racism were adopted into federal Indian law by the Supreme Court during the 1800s that are still “good law” today... The biggest structural legal hurdles that hinder Native American progress, make us poor and render our rights vulnerable is the “dark side” of federal Indian law. Many nefarious legal principles, unjust legal fictions, notions of unfettered colonialism and racism were adopted into federal Indian law by the Supreme Court during the 1800s that are still “good law” today and relied upon by the Supreme Court to decide Indian cases in 2014. The law reform challenge of this generation is to root out the “dark side” of federal Indian law to make our legal framework a more just body of law. The UNDRIP provides a tool to eradicate those colonial doctrines in a post-colonial world using modern International human rights law and norms at the pathway. To date, none of the leading Native legal organizations are mounting a strategic national effort to overturn the many Supreme Court decisions, such as Johnson v. M’Intosh (which held that private citizens could not purchase land from Native Americans) that comprise the “dark side” of federal Indian law. Indian Country must mount a sustained effort similar to 18 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
that employed by Black America to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson in the legal reform movement that led to Brown v. Board of Education. Native Americans have simply lived with the existing legal framework and tried to coax the courts into applying its most protective features, but the tribal sovereignty movement has never mounted a frontal assault on the nefarious legal doctrines. We now stand at that crossroads today. As a lawyer and jurist, what has been your finest hour? What have been the low points? Your biggest regrets?
I am most pleased by my legislative work resulting in the passage of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the 1994 Amendments to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and water rights litigation protecting the rivers and water bodies of the Klamath Tribes in Southern Oregon. My low points were reached in seeing the Supreme Court trend since 1985 ruling against Indian tribes in more than 80 percent of the cases. My greatest regret: Not having the opportunity to argue and win a Supreme Court case. MCCA.COM
Many newly minted lawyers are graduating from law school with large amounts of debt and are finding it increasingly difficult to find work. Why is a law career still critical to elevating the American Indian tribes?
There remains a big need for Native American lawyers in the next generation to consolidate gains made since 1970; navigate uncharted waters that many successful tribes now find themselves in and to make sure no tribe is left behind. They also need to strengthen and reform our legal framework by eradicating the “dark side” of federal Indian law and replacing it with the UN human rights standards of the UNDRIP. As you near the end of your career, what are some goals you’d like to accomplish before retirement?
I would like to see a well-endowed national project formed to work on a sustained basis to help guide Indian country into the “Human Rights Era” of Federal Indian law and policy. We have the talent, resources and experience to mount such a justice campaign. It just has to be put together by tribal leaders with vision and tribal attorneys with courage. Today we stand at the dawn of that new era in federal Indian law and policy when President Obama endorsed the UNDRIP in 2010. I will not live to see our nation fully implement those basic minimum standards, but I would like to see our champions take up that cause and stride toward justice—just like we took up the work of our generation to implement the Indian Self-Determination policy in 1970. D&B Lekan Oguntoyinbo is a freelance journalist based in Columbia, MO. Contact him at oguntoyinbo@gmail. com.
Get involved. Stay fluent in industry trends. Join MCCA Today. The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) is the premier source of learning, knowledge and future-oriented research on diversity and inclusion for the in-house legal profession. We provide resources, education, ideas and networking to enhance the power and performance of this community. Since 1997, MCCA in-house legal department members have been committed to diversity and inclusion. Not in-house counsel? MCCA has the Law Firm Affiliate Network (FAN) to support and acknowledge law firms that are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. If you are interested in joining a dynamic group of legal professionals committed to diversity and inclusion, visit www.mcca.com/membership for details or call 202.739.5901.
1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004
2014 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A CHAMPION FOR JUSTICE The Honorable Cruz Reynoso BY DIANNE HAYES
From segregated schools to witnessing discrimination first-hand in a rural Mexican-American community in the orange and lemon groves of Southern California, Justice Cruz Reynoso’s humble beginnings were the catalyst for a lifetime of public service and the pursuit of fairness and equality.
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IS PLANS TO USE his gifts as an artist or teacher, quickly changed to activism and law after winning his first battle of righting a wrong at the ripe age of 9. After overhearing adults complain about the lack of mail delivery to the migrant community and having to travel miles to pick up their mail, the inquisitive youngster challenged the postmaster about delivery to other homes in the area, but not to the small barrio.
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“He told me it wasn’t his responsibility and that we would have to take it up with the postmaster in Washington, DC,” Reynoso said. “I prepared a petition and had the adults sign it, but I could tell that they didn’t think anything would happen. I believed what my teacher told me—that we could change things. Two to three weeks later we got a letter back and in a month we got a notice to prepare ourselves for rural delivery.” That taste of success, heightened his sensitivity to the plight of the people around him including seeing his parents search for a lawyer who would be willing to help migrant farm workers or as a young man driving past a junior high school dance where a group of Mexican teens were shut out. “I was driving the first car I ever had. I knew the elementary schools were segregated, but the junior high schools were not. I thought they needed money, but they just wouldn’t let them in. I found the person in charge, who told me they were excluded because they thought there would be problems if they came in.” “I call it my “justice bone.” It would literally hurt and I felt compelled to do something about it.” His crusade for justice as a high school student included winning the desegregation of his former elementary school by meeting with school board members, neighborhood residents, and taking the matter of state-segregated education to school board meetings along with members of his community. For the Love of Learning
The cultural divide for the son of Mexican immigrants was palpable for Reynoso who recalls their struggle and his glimpses of two very different worlds that were unequal, but where education was the great equalizer. The lack of role models increased the gulf for the young boy who loved reading. “When I was in segregated schools during World War II, there was the only one Mexican-American teacher I ever had,” Reynoso said. “He spent a lot of time with us. I thought maybe I could be a teacher. I remember him fondly. As a youngster, I didn’t have a lot of role models. The life of my parents was very different from the life I was experiencing.”
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2014 LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD
A CHAMPION FOR JUSTICE: The Honorable Cruz Reynoso
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A. Jeannene Reynoso and Cruz Reynoso after his graduation from UC Berkeley Law School in 1958. B. 1956 east of LA, coming back from East Tennessee after his marriage to Jeannene. C. Justice Reynoso’s official California Supreme Court portrait. He served on the court from 1982-1987.
“I remember my mother saying, ‘Look how lazy my boys turned out to be—reading books instead of working. I didn’t have a lot of immediate folk to frame my life around. The teachers were my role models. I appreciated what they told me, even in a segregated school with all white teachers.” At the time, many boys in migrant farm families quit school by the age of 16 to work in the fields. His mother expected that her sons would do the same. Reynoso recalls summers working in the fields harvesting onions, plums and grapes. “I asked the field foreman when grape picking season would be over. He asked why, and I told him I wanted to get View a 7 minute video about back to school. We were always Judge Reynoso’s life at late. He laughed and said you’re www.mcca.com/awards the first Mexican kid I’ve seen interested in education. It made me so mad. I was in seventh or eighth grade and it was then that I decided I would go to college.” He began his higher education at Fullerton Community College, and won a scholarship to Pomona College where he graduated in 1953. After spending two years in the Army, he earned a law degree in 1958 from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the only Latino to graduate in his class. A Family Affair
While he didn’t maximize his gifts as an artist or become a teacher, he has passed on those genes among his four children—two lawyers, a teacher and artist/college professor. Reynoso continues to practice law and kept his promise to his son that when he opened his practice that he would serve as special counsel, something he has done at a law firm with as many as 400 attorneys. 22 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
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I became a lawyer to help people in need,” Reynoso said. “As a young lawyer I referred to myself as a “troublemaking lawyer. I had a reputation as a poverty lawyer, who sued government agencies.” Most of Reynoso’s clients were poor farm workers whom he fought their causes through class action lawsuits, with many against the government. He recalls pondering the idea of becoming a judge, but almost gave up on the idea when he didn’t see many people who looked like him. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the California Court of Appeals in 1976 and to the California Supreme Court five years later. Reynoso is one of 11 siblings who grew up in Brea, Calif. He and his wife have 17 grandchildren, many of whom are college graduates. A Lifetime of Achievement
His “justice bone” still aches, even now at 83, where he has accomplished more than most can dream of in a lifetime during his more than 50 years of service. A trailblazer and legal scholar, he is recognized for his leadership in civil rights, immigration and refugee policy, government reform, the administration of justice, and legal services for the indigent. Reynoso was California’s first Latino Supreme Court Justice and one of the country’s first Latino law professors. President Bill Clinton appointed him as Vice Chair on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1994, where he provided leadership in the investigation of voting rights abuses in the 2000 election in Florida. President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, the country’s highest civilian honor for his lifelong dedication to public service.
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He was also honored with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Hispanic Heritage Award in Education and the American Bar Association’s Robert J. Kutak and Spirit of Excellence Awards for his significant contributions to increased cooperation between legal education, the practicing bar, and the judiciary. Reynoso is the recipient of the Hispanic National Bar Association’s highest honor—the Lincoln-Juarez Award, which is named after Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez, presidents of the United States and Mexico, who were both lawyers and fought injustice. He also received the State Bar of California’s Loren Miller Award. Reynoso also received the University of California, Davis Medal, the university’s highest honor. He is currently Professor of Law Emeritus and was the inaugural holder of the Law School’s Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality. The UC Davis School of Law created the Cruz & Jeannene Reynoso Scholarship for Legal Access in his name to assist students who have financial needs. Previously, Reynoso served as the director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, where he worked to give farm workers a voice through activism in California courts. He was the foundation’s first Latino lawyer and first of his ethnicity to be its director in 1969. He also taught at UCLA School of Law and was the faculty advisor for the UCLA Chicano-Latino Law Review. His remarkable life story as a history maker has been shared through an award-winning documentary, Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice, produced in 2010 by Abby Ginzberg and aired on public television during Hispanic Heritage month. Most recently, the Minority Corporate Counsel Asso-
D. Judge Reynoso in the classroom at UC Davis where he loves teaching and interacting with future generations of lawyers. E. Judge Reynoso receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President William J. Clinton in 2000.
ciation awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award for being a trailblazer in advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. “I must confess, the Lifetime Achievement Award comes as a surprise to me,” Reynoso said. “MCCA has been around a long time and it is doing things I devoted my life to. I consider it an honor to receive an award from such an organization.” Giving Back Along the Journey
He has found no reason to slow down. “I’ve known people who were active in parts of their life, then not any more. The basic notions are the same since I was a little boy. I try to do whatever I can.” His rare combination of being humble and revolutionary are striking and refreshing as he prepares himself for the next challenge of providing services for those he believes has been treated unjustly as a lawyer, law professor and mentor. Reynoso is dividing his time between serving as a Professor of Law Emeritus at UC Davis School of Law, and continuing to practice law including expert witness, mediation, and pro bono work, and working with his son’s firm. In addition, he is volunteering with a program to mentor and tutor second graders to help them get on grade level. His new battleground is in changing the course of the future of youngsters who are lagging behind. “I’m convinced that the most important thing is for young people to have a dream of what they want to do and what they can become,” Reynoso said. “For the second graders, I hope to instill in them stick-to-it-ness. Things don’t happen overnight. Studying and learning can be very pleasurable. These notions can propel them forward.” D&B MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 23
2014 MCCA AWARD WINNERS EMPLOYER OF CHOICE AWARD
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
GEORGE B. VASHON INNOVATOR AWARD
PAULA L. ETTELBRICK AWARD
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BY DIANNE HAYES DEDICATED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE LEGAL WORKFORCE, EVERY YEAR MCCA SEEKS OUT THE BEST AND THE MOST INNOVATIVE FIRMS, LEGAL DEPARTMENTS
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AND ORGANIZATIONS TO RECOGNIZE FOR THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS.
I N N E R S F R O M A R O U N D T H E C O U N T R Y are among the most successful at creating opportunities for advancement and promotion, career development and a path for a new generation entering the legal profession. These honorees have made their resources, leadership and talent available to help increase the number of diverse partners, to support women in their career-life balance, and accelerate the learning curve through mentors and sponsors. MCCA proudly honors corporations, individuals and law firms who have put their commitment into action. They have shown leadership and creativity in developing initiatives to address recruitment and retention, mentoring, pipeline development, LGBT initiatives, or vendor diversity inclusion. Our prestigious Employer of Choice award spotlights industry leaders who are committed to and succeed at creating and maintaining inclusive corporate legal departments. They are selected from five regions of the United States. The coveted Thomas L. Sager award recognizes some of the best law firms demonstrating sustained commitment to hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys. Celebrating creativity, the George B. Vashon Innovator Award highlights the innovative best practices used by in-house legal departments to assist diverse attorneys, and the Paula L. Ettelbrick award celebrates the achievements of an individual or organization in the LGBT community. MCCA honors all of its 2014 winners for their diligence and passion in creating a more diverse and inclusive legal community.
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2014 MCCA AWARDS
EMPL OYER O F C HO IC E A W A R D
Susan L. Blount Executive Vice President and General Counsel Prudential Financial Inc. Northeast Region
C O M M I T M E N T T O D I V E R S I T Y begins at
the top at Prudential Financial, Inc., where Susan L. Blount, executive vice president and general counsel has created an environment of inclusion from Town Hall meetings to blogs on the department’s intranet site, to brown bag lunches and small group meetings, her message is reinforced routinely. Blount also reviews progress toward diversity and inclusion goals on a monthly basis with her management team and on an annual basis with Prudential’s Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld. Headquartered in Newark, NJ, Prudential Financial helps individuals and institutional customers protect their wealth. In business for 135 years, it operates in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Formal and informal initiatives on recruitment and professional development have been established by Prudential’s Law, Compliance, Business Ethics, and External Affairs (LCBE) departments. Last year, the LCBE Leadership team hosted its first “Open Door Days” that allowed LCBE associates at all levels to stop by and chat with Blount and other senior leaders about topics ranging from mentoring to career development. LCBE has used two strategies that has resulted in increased percentages of women and people of color being hired and promoted, particularly at the senior associate levels. The results were achieved by monitoring race and gender specific objectives and results in hiring and promotions and a talent initiative seeking diverse candidate slates with a focus on succession planning to build the pipeline. In 2013, Prudential hired 12 new attorneys, of which 83 percent were women, and 33 percent were people of color. Last year, diversity of interview slate objectives were met 100 percent of the time for all 33 law positions. LCBE Human Resources and Prudential Staffing review metrics on a weekly basis to ensure that diverse slates are met. Prudential’s formal mentoring program began in 2007 with 44 LCBE associates, today it has grown to 187 participants, with 67 from the law department. Last year
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it launched the Reverse Mentoring Program, which pairs senior associates with junior-level associates, who meet regularly to exchange ideas and different perspectives. Committed to developing the next generation of attorneys, Prudential’s Pipeline Initiatives include the New Jersey Law and Education Empowerment Project, which helps educate and mentor about 50 inner-city high school students interested in law for the last seven years. The LCBE Summer Intern Program selects diverse students from Rutgers and those selected from bar associations for a 10-week program. In addition, The Law Fellows Program offers recent law graduates accelerated learning opportunities in corporate law over an 18-month period, along with mentorship and a full-time job with guidance. The program focuses on people of color, women and members of the LGBT community. Making minority and women-owned firms a priority, Prudential’s Law Department saw a 34.5 percent annual growth rate in its use of these firms. Since 2013, it exceeded its annual goal, which is 10 times more than it spent on such firms in 2006. The Outside Counsel Diversity Committee at Prudential promotes diversity and inclusion in the legal profession by promoting the use of minority and women-owned law firms and works to improve the diversity metrics with larger, majority-owned firms. LCBE tracks diversity statistics for many of the majority-owned firms it retains and establishes an upfront expectation regarding diversity. In most cases, large law firms seeking new business from Prudential are expected to employ a diverse mix of attorneys. Metrics that are tracked include gender, race, ethnicity, LBGT, and persons with disabilities. Prudential’s law department’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. It has received special recognition by the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Recruitment and Retention, was named a “Legal Department of the Year” by the New Jersey Law Journal and the “Corporate Law Department of the Year,” by the New Jersey Hispanic Bar Association; and is a three time winner of MCCA’s Employer of Choice award.
2014 MCCA AWARDS
EM PLOYER O F C HO IC E A W A R D
Dan Troy
General Counsel GlaxoSmithKline Mid-Atlantic Region AT G L A X O S M I T H K L I N E (GSK), diversity
and inclusion are action words. That position has long held true as part of the legal department’s mission “to seek, value, and draw upon the differing knowledge, perspectives, experiences, and styles resident within our global community.” Headquartered in Brentford, England the company has a long legacy with roots that go back as far as 1715. GlaxoSmithKline was created out of a merger of GlaxoWellcome plc and SmithKline Beecham plc in 2001. The global pharmaceutical company operates in 117 countries with research, manufacturing and corporate sites in the United States. Glaxo researches, develops and produces drugs, vaccines and life-enhancing products. GSK Senior Vice President and General Counsel Dan Troy is a member of the corporate executive team, which has established expectations for all senior managers, which are a part of his annual objectives. Those expectations include communicating the value of a diverse and inclusive workforce and driving all managers to do the same, establishing an expectation for involvement in inclusion and diversity activities, implementing strategies that include aggressive policies and procedures, especially in recruiting, talent management and succession planning, and having a clear focus on areas of underrepresented by minorities and women in each department. Troy has embedded these same objectives into the performance plan of his Legal Management Team to ensure recruitment and promotion from diverse talent pools, building relationships with external organizations, partners and suppliers and reaching out to the communities to build a reputation of trust. Members of the team serve as mentors to diverse employees and law students, attend and speak at diversity conferences. Accountability is a key factor in monitoring initiatives. Recruiting data is reviewed in the U.S., which involves not only numbers of women and minorities hired, but also looks at the diversity of the recruiting slates.
Last year, seven out of eight attorneys hired by GSK Legal were women, and the other was an African-American male. The GSK Legal Department has 60 percent diverse attorneys including 26 percent minorities and 34 percent women. Training is a critical component to developing staff. GSK Legal managers take a three-hour course on Unconscious Bias, and will be offered this year to GSK U.S. attorneys, paralegals, administrative assistants, and information scientists. In addition, attorneys take online training seminars, external workshops and diversity training including MCCA’s Pathways to Diversity Conferences. GSK has emphasized its desire for diverse outside counsel teams and created the Outside Counsel Selection Initiative for the dozen or so events annually, where part of the bidding process involves proposing a diverse team to be retained. This process has resulted in an average attorney team diversity of 55 percent across all events in 2013. In this process, the most diverse firms are getting the highest number of bids on GSK work. Mentoring is a key factor in increasing opportunities at GSK. Diverse attorneys are involved as Fellows in the LCLD Fellows Program, as mentors on the LCLD mentors program, as mentors in the summer intern program. They also participate in developmental programs internally and externally. Reaching out to the next generation is also a priority to help to build a diverse pipeline. GSK’s Young Inventors Program teaches young students about IP, copyrights, patents and trademarks, and challenges the students to create their own inventive products. The focus is to encourage inner city young people to consider the fields of law and science. The Summer Intern program gives diverse 1Ls a chance to work in GSK Legal to make career connections and network. In addition, networking events are held to support diverse law students. GSK has made a priority of recruiting, retaining, developing its in-house talent, and providing opportunities to impact students and communities to impact change.
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2014 MCCA AWARDS
EMPL OYER O F C HO IC E A W A R D
Rupert Bondy Group General Counsel BP America, Inc. South Region
C R E AT I N G A N I N C L U S I V E work environment where everyone can make a difference and do their best is the ultimate goal of the Diversity & Inclusion plan at BP America, Inc. “We have made some positive progress in our D&I journey over the last three years and acknowledge that this is thanks to the efforts made by many people within the Legal and Ethics and Compliance function,” said Rupert Bondy, BP group general counsel. “However, we need to continue to build on our momentum.” That momentum includes a Legal D&I Plan that includes creating a culture that embeds values and behaviors in their teams, mentoring programs across Legal, Ethics & Compliance, support organizations that promote opportunities for diverse populations, and improvements to the Pulse Employee Satisfaction Survey to include a diversity and inclusion component. The Law Department includes 99 attorneys of whom 16 are minority and 44 are women; 25 managing attorneys who are direct reports to the general counsel with two minority and six women; 74 associates with 14 of them minority and 38 women. BP is one of the world’s leading international oil and gas companies. For nearly 150 years, it has provided fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, lubricants and petrochemical products. With high expectations for continued diversity and inclusion, BP has a voluntary mentoring program for all of its staff across the global functions. BP Legal has a presence in 34 countries and 50 cities. The mentoring program includes 97 pairs representing attorneys, paralegals, and support staff. Each pair meets by phone or in person on a regular basis and is evaluated annually. Every employee at BP has an annual review of the “My Plan,” a career development plan used as the tool for goal setting and performance evaluations. The “My Plan” document for BP Legal requires a diversity and inclusion objective for each employee. Every employee is evaluated for their contribution toward increasing diversity aware-
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ness. Diversity training is mandatory including training on unconscious bias, gender differences in communication and bullying. Outside accountability is also a key component to the overall diversity and inclusion plan. The U.S. BP Legal’s External Counsel Management Committee is comprised of a diverse team of BP attorneys who have the responsibility to hold BP’s external counsel accountable for diversity, billing rates, and measurements of performance. Each year, the committee gathers diversity metrics from each of the firms and does a core counsel review of 6-8 of the firms. Spending with minority-owned firms is tracked where diversity data is accessible on the BP intranet to all BP Legal staff. In addition, minority-owned firms are identified on the BP legal intranet site. Extending support to future attorneys is accomplished through the Summer Internship Program, which includes diversity and inclusion objectives. The BP Legal Group has hired 30 interns since 2007. Current employees are given the opportunity to be highlighted through Diversity and Inclusion profiles, which are displayed on the D&I Sharepoint site, posted on bulletin boards on each of the floors legal occupies and used in legal meetings. Employees are also given exposure through the professionally filmed “My Story” videos that showcase employee diversity and allows them to share their thoughts on diversity. The videos are shown at BP’s Legal Department Away Day and Legal College, and available online. BPs also gives back to the community through its pro bono work, which includes supporting women and other diverse and disadvantaged members of the population. Legal organizations supported by BP include the Association of Corporate Counsel, Asian American Bar Association, Disability Rights Legal Center, LGBT Bar Association, Texas Minority Counsel Program and Minority Corporate Counsel Association. “To be competitive and thrive globally we want to attract, motivate, develop and retain the best talent from the diversity the world offers,” Rupert said. “We aim for a workforce that is representative of the societies in which we operate.”
2014 MCCA AWARDS
EM PLOYER O F C HO IC E A W A R D
Sharon R. Barner
Vice President and General Counsel Cummins Inc. Midwest Region A L O N G - T I M E C H A M P I O N of diversity and inclusion, Vice President and General Counsel Sharon R. Barner is leading Cummins Inc.’s Law Department in its efforts to inspire and encourage the use of the best and most diverse talent from her legal department and business teams as well as many law firms that support the company. Headquartered in Columbus, Ind., the Fortune 500 company designs, manufactures, sells and services diesel engines and related technology globally. Cummins serves its customers through its network of 500 company-owned and independent distributor facilities and more than 5,200 dealer locations in over 190 countries and territories. Founded in 1919, it employs 46,000 people worldwide and serves customers in 190 countries and territories through a network of more than 600 company-owned and independent distributor locations and approximately 6,500 dealer locations. “Diversity is essential in creating the right environment for success,” Barner said. “We believe that having people of diverse backgrounds solve critical problems, yields better results and solutions. Therefore, we believe that diversity is not just the right thing to do, it is critical to our business’ success. In that way it is also critical to getting the best legal and business solutions and outcomes for Cummins.” In the U.S. legal department, Cummins has 21 lawyers, nine of whom are women, nine are racial and ethnically diverse and two are LGBT. In the remainder of the globe, 48 percent of the legal group is female. In addition, 45 percent the global senior legal team are female and onethird are racially and ethnically diverse. An informal policy was implemented where all new hires are interviewed by a cross section of the law department, requiring underrepresented diverse and women interviewers and the first resume reviewers aim to compile “short lists” that include underrepresented candidates.
Members of the law department are encouraged to engage with minority civic and professional organizations including participation at the country’s largest expo, the Indiana Black Expo, participating in minority job fairs, and events minority legal events like the Howard University Law School’s Continuing Legal Education Seminar. In order to provide support for new hires, they are paired with experienced attorneys to assist with learning the corporate culture and learning about the tools that are needed to succeed at Cummins. Included in the program are initiatives to meet with Cummins leadership team, get involved in Affinity Groups and prepare a work plan that includes getting involved in giving back through activities to improve the environment, education or improving the communities served by Cummins. For outside counsel, Barner has implemented a convergence process that ensures that firms pitching for and receiving Cummins legal work, would not only have diverse teams, but have teams led by a diverse relationship partner. As a result of the year-long convergence process, Cummins went from having no underrepresented minority relationship partners to having four and having one female relationship partner to having three. For outside counsel, quantitative measures are used to measure diversity efforts. “We have partnered with our outside law firms to ensure that women, minorities and LGBT associates and partners are actively engaged and leading our matters. It is a metric by which they are measured and actively evaluated,” Barner said. As a result of the diversity initiatives at Cummins, the law department now has more than 67 percent underrepresented minorities and women and more than 40 percent of the senior leadership team is diverse in the male-dominated industry. “Our recruiting has been geared to finding the best and brightest lawyers around the globe,” Barner said. “I am very proud of our efforts to ensure that we have a broad range of gender, racial and ethnic diversity in the candidates we interview.”
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2014 MCCA AWARDS
EMPLOYER OF CHOICE AWARD
Scott Wilensky Senior Vice President and General Counsel Xcel Energy West Region
Y O U C A N ’ T F I X what you won’t face, and
Xcel Energy’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Scott Wilensky is ready to take aim at the problem. While he understands that people are naturally drawn to people like themselves, his diversity and inclusion strategies are meant to shake up affinity and unconscious biases. While it may be second nature to want to be around and work with people most like you, Wilensky is nudging his legal department to move outside their comfort zone to reach out and include people who are different from themselves. “The goal is that over time, this will require less and less conscious effort as the workplace becomes a more inclusive whole,” Wilensky said. “You create a culture that’s respectful to everyone. It doesn’t matter whether the person is diverse or not.” Xcel Energy’s Legal Department has grown to include more than 40 attorneys located in Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas. Nearly half of the legal department’s attorneys are women and minorities with many managing and working as team leads. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., the major U.S. electric and natural gas company’s legal department is also focused on retention with the creation of an engagement survey to gauge success and areas for improvement. The results are published and a forum is held to discuss the findings. Last year, the legal department put together a team of well-respected individuals to interview each employee to evaluate where it can improve. The responses were presented and as a result, an Employee Engagement committee was formed to strategize and implement change to increase employee engagement. The engagement survey is also used as part of the Legal Department’s internal “Scorecard.” The results are compared with scorecard results from other company departments and other law departments throughout the nation in the energy sector to identify strengths and weakness. Wilensky holds quarterly legal department breakfast
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meetings emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusion efforts. His open dialogue has increased the effectiveness of the legal department’s diversity and inclusion committee called the Employee Excellence and Equality Committee (EEE). The EEE Committee is diverse and is divided into three areas: outside counsel engagement and actions, which focuses on evaluating outside counsel surveys and invests in forging partnerships in an effort to support diversity efforts; The Office of General Counsel Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement, focusing on internal matters such as work-life balance; and communication, education and outreach, which pursues training opportunities, and encourages participation in community service and other volunteer activities. “We’ve taken the general approach of prodding rather than requiring,” he said. “We have decided that the prod and push is probably going to be the most effective – more effective than the stick.” Mentoring is also a key component to success. Every team lead/managing attorney provides mentoring to the attorneys they supervise or work with. Attorneys are encouraged to go outside their practice areas and to mid-level and senior management in other business areas to obtain support. Each attorney is required to identify an area of learning/interest on their annual performance and development plan. In addition, mentoring is offered through the Path to Leadership program, which supports the development of individual contributors aspiring to be leaders at Xcel Energy. Each participant is paired with a mentor. Excel also promotes the importance to giving back to the community including a day of service in which employees can volunteer to help nonprofit groups working in diverse communities. “We really do see that our roots are in the communities that we serve,” Wilensky said. “The goal is to instill in people the ability to reach out, to always try to help somebody.”
2014 MCCA AWARDS
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
Linda Wong
Partner and Chief Executive Officer Wong Fleming Northeast Region W H I L E M A N Y L AW F I R M S are working on
improving their diversity and inclusion plans, Wong Fleming is steeped in diversity since its founding in 1994. Its focus is on becoming a more global law firm and enhancing the opportunities of its diverse team. Several Wong Fleming partners are members of diverse cultures, many of the associates are either minorities, women or LGBT. A service provider to Fortune 500 companies, Wong Fleming has offices across the country and in Canada and Germany. “We are very diverse, Middle Eastern, African American, Asian, Hispanic, LGBT and lawyers of every background,” said Linda Wong, partner and CEO. “We are committed to hiring minority women and promoting from within. We make sure they gain good experience in terms of the quality of the legal work, excellent training, understanding legal strategy, business needs of clients, and best practice policies.” The firm is certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. Various public entities have granted minority certification to the firm including the Empire State Department of Economic Development; the State of New Jersey; the Port Authorities of New York and New Jersey; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and the City of Philadelphia. Committed to ongoing professional development, education and training, the Wong Fleming University is the firm’s in-house training program for its attorneys and professional staff. The firm has implemented an in-house CLE program for attorneys, taught by partners and experienced associates in the firm. The Paralegal Listen & Learn series is an in-house training program for Wong Fleming paralegals and professional staff. The series includes bi-weekly seminars taught by the firm’s partners and associates. It includes presentations on substantive areas handled by the firm, practice and procedure, best practices in managing legal files and working with clients.
Attorneys at Wong Fleming are encouraged to develop a healthy work-life balance, with a philosophy of fostering an environment discouraging bringing work home, and offers flexibility in the work schedule. To encourage a collegial and relaxed work environment, Wong Fleming hosts both bi-weekly lunches and weekly breakfasts for the staff where meals are shared family style. Support is also given to pipeline initiatives with Wong serving as a speaker and pipeline projects including participation in and financial support of the New Jersey LEEP, which provides opportunities for urban youth in grades eight to 12 from underserved neighborhoods in northern New Jersey to perform at high academic levels while gaining exposure to law and leadership skills. The firm hires summer law clerks and interns from local colleges and law schools and receive mentoring and experience in day-to-day operations in different areas of practice. Wong is a much sought after speaker and has shared her diversity and inclusion knowledge and strategies on panels. She is also the recipient of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award. The Diversity Committee is chaired by Wong, and is comprised of diverse attorneys who seek out and coordinate opportunities and partnerships through membership in diverse legal diversity organizations including the National Association of Minority and Women-Owned Law Firms, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association, the LGBT Bar Association and the DRI Diversity Committee. Wong holds The MCCA Sager Award in high esteem and holds it as motivation to continue advancing the firm’s efforts. “It’s a real honor becoming a Sager Award winner,” she said. “Historically it’s given to larger law firms with hundreds if not thousands of lawyers based on their efforts in hiring minority lawyers. It’s the first time the MCCA board has recognized a minority-woman owned law firm in receiving the Sager Award. It gives voice and recognition to women-owned law firms when it comes to diversity and awards shared with the white shoe law firms.”
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THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
Daryl (Sandy) Chamblee Partner and Chief Diversity Officer Steptoe & Johnson LLP Mid-Atlantic Region AT S T E P T O E & J O H N S O N L L P diversity and inclusion is more than a written strategic plan. It includes innovative best practices that result in sustainable and impactful change. A 60-year old international law firm with more than 500 lawyers, its reach includes offices in the United States, Beijing, Brussels, and London, making diversity and inclusion even more critical. The firm provides advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, representation of clients before governmental agencies, and advises and guides business transactions. With a solid track record in diversity and inclusion programs, Partner and Chief Diversity Officer Daryl Sandy Chamblee said there is a greater emphasis on not just recruiting and retaining diverse attorneys, but ensuring their advancement and promotion to leadership in the firm. “The other focus area that has shifted is diversity inclusion education training to change behavior,” Chamblee said. “The focus is not only on diversity and inclusion, but how to address unconscious bias. We started with the top executive committee, practice group leaders, office head and senior administrative people, then did training of partners. Later in the year we will finish with staff.” An outside trainer was brought in for a series of twohour interactive training sessions. The trainer’s focused on conscious and unconscious bias and how to interrupt those biases. Training at the firm includes ensuring that biases don’t seep into attorney evaluations. “Biases tend to effect the whole community, not just minorities and women,” Chamblee said. The Majority Initiative focuses on the active participation of white males in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. In 2013, six Steptoe partners attended the “White Men’s Caucus,” organized by Bill Proudman of White Males as Full Diversity Partners. The program’s goal was to explore the role of white men in diversity and inclusion, focusing on significantly raising awareness and understanding about the requirements and suggesting ways they can become more engaged in its creation.
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Upon returning from the Caucus, two attendees asked to join the Diversity Committee and one is helping to develop a more robust diversity and inclusion education program in his office. The firm’s formal Diversity Action Plan addresses recruitment, hiring, retention, development, and advancement of diverse attorneys in the firm. The Plan serves as a backdrop and general guidance document for Steptoe’s initiatives at all levels of the firm, including attorney, administrative, and staff. It is reviewed and modified annually. The Diversity Advisory Board, which is comprised of corporate general counsel and other high level officials offers objective advice on diversity and inclusion policies and issues. To help with retention of women and minorities, The Diversity Committee, Multicultural Attorneys at Steptoe, and the Women’s Forum sponsor numerous events throughout the year. They include Practice Group Leader Dialogue, which was designed to help leadership know minority associates and counsel. The Women’s Forum presented the Business Development Training for career development hosted by two female attorneys. They also hosted a series of brunches and dinners at partners’ homes to serve as an opportunity for Steptoe’s women attorneys to network. The Women Attorneys of Color Tea is an annual bonding event to address the fact that women minority attorneys leave law practice at disproportionately high rates. Steptoe’s LGBT Forum was formed in 2010 with membership that includes both LGBT attorneys and those who support them. Externally, the firm supports organizations including the National LGBT Bar Association, GayLaw, and independent, non-partisan bar association and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. Firm associates are assisted through an individual attorney development plan to help them move through the ranks and learn what it takes to become through training on core competencies. In 2014, Steptoe promoted four attorneys to partner, including two women. The firm also promoted 10 attorneys to Of Counsel, six of whom were women and two were minorities. “Establishing and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce is not a sprint,” she said. “It’s something you are vigilant about and it’s not always easy.”
2014 MCCA AWARDS
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
Bruce J. Ruzinsky
Partner & Diversity Committee Chair Jackson Walker LLP South Region A D E C A D E A G O a small group of attorneys presented a case to their superiors to actively make diversity a priority at Jackson Walker LLP, one of the oldest and largest Texas-based law firms. Bruce J. Ruzinsky, partner and chair of the Diversity Committee was one of them. “We’ve had the Diversity Committee for 10 years,” Ruzinsky said. “I have been involved from the very beginning. Since that time, the firm has become a pacesetter in supporting and mentoring women and minority attorneys, establishing policies to support work and home life balance and creating an atmosphere for promotion, and giving law students an entrée into the field.” Jackson Walker LLP is 125 years old and has more than 350 attorneys in seven Texas offices. It represents Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations, major financial institutions, and a wide range of public and private businesses across the U.S. and around the globe. Progress is being made. At a firm where half of the attorneys are trial lawyers, Ruzinsky proudly points out that a woman heads the largest group in the practice. Women are supported through a women’s initiative which addresses policies ranging from maternity leave, mentoring, and work-life balance to help retain talent. Retention is a significant issue for most firms. Jackson Walker has confronted the challenge with three approaches: mentoring, support and promotion. Retention efforts include strengthening relationships between associates and senior attorneys through mentoring, sponsoring and networking. Women, ethnic minorities, LGBT attorneys and attorneys with disabilities are encouraged to pursue business development opportunities and leadership roles within the firm. In 2013, 63.6 percent of the firm’s newly elected partners were women and minorities. The website law.com listed Jackson Walker in the top five of 183 national law firms at which women constituted a majority in new partner classes of 10 or more. Over the last six years, nearly 50 percent of the firm’s newly elected partners were either women or ethnic mi-
norities. By 2011, the number of the firm’s new female partners increased to 60 percent. According to a recent Texas Lawyer magazine survey of the 25 largest firms in Texas, Jackson Walker had the highest percentage of minority summer clerks, and the fifth largest percentage of women summer clerks, for the summer of 2012. The 2013 summer clerk class was 39 percent diverse. The firm also supports scholarship programs, student organizations and events that are designed to enhance opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBT individuals and persons with disabilities in the legal profession. Jackson Walker’s commitment to diversity and inclusion includes a 21-member attorney and staff Diversity Committee, which meets quarterly and its six subcommittees work actively throughout the year. The committee spends more than 900 hours each year furthering the firm’s diversity goals and initiatives including pipeline efforts. Jackson Walker was honored as a “Diversity Champion” for its involvement in the Houston Bar Program that placed more than 100 1L minority students in summer clerkships, corporate law departments, governmental agencies and courts in the greater Houston area. Ruzinsky has served on the committees involved in creating the opportunities. Last February, the firm kicked off its Shadowing Program for five 1L students from Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law. In 2013, the firm hired a new fall associate who participated in the Shadow program. Ruzinsky says there is more to be done and the Sager Award is recognition that they are moving in the right direction. “It’s an honor to win this award. I am proud and humbled by it,” Ruzinsky said. “It really spurs us on as an even greater impetus to do the right thing. Our management embraces the importance of diversity. It’s nice to see some of those efforts being recognized. This award is up there as high as you can get.”
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2014 MCCA AWARDS
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
Paul E. Bateman Shareholder Littler Mendelson Midwest Region
D I V E R S I T Y A N D I N C L U S I O N are core val-
ues at Littler Mendelson that are a priority at every level of the largest global employment and labor law practice impacting its more than 1,000 attorneys in 60 offices. Shareholder Paul Bateman said he is most proud of the Career Advocacy Pilot Program that was launched in 2012 and was inspired by MCCA’s “Mentoring Across Differences: A Guide to Cross-Race Mentoring.” The program focuses on inclusion. “It is one thing to have diverse talent; it is another thing to have your diverse talent be included in all aspects of a firm that can lead to the full opportunity for success,” Bateman said. “We identified higher level, higher performing associates who are visibly diverse, female, or who had self-identified as LGBT or disabled associates. These associates or protégés are paired with various shareholders or advocates within the firm. The advocate includes some of Littler’s most influential leaders, including members of firm management and board of directors, as well as significant rainmakers. Protégés and advocates meet twice annually, while also maintaining regular phone contact.” The program began with 22 associates and eight shareholders and now has 32 protégés and 10 advocates. This year champions are being added, who are general counsel at various companies. In the Midwest offices, the firm has seen dramatic increases in the numbers of minority and female attorneys in the past two years. The number of minority attorneys grew by 19 percent and women attorneys by 12 percent. The number of minority associates increased by seven percent and women non-equity partners increased by 40 percent. The number of new minority attorney hires increased by 100 percent, while new women attorney hires increased by 30 percent. In addition, last year the firm recruited several lateral shareholders of color. The firm tracks diversity statistics on a regular basis to ensure that diversity goals are met. The Diversity & Inclusion Council regularly shares program updates and
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expectations with key management personnel throughout the firm and reports the progress of diversity initiatives results to the Management Committee on a quarterly basis. Established in 2003, the Diversity & Inclusion Council is responsible for creating, implementing and reviewing firm-wide diversity and inclusion strategies. It is comprised of more than 20 lawyers and professional staff with goals of retaining talent, creating mentoring opportunities, fostering personal growth, creating a pipeline for promotion of diverse talent, and assisting clients in meeting their diversity and inclusion business objectives through training and development programs. Littler recognizes the importance of having women leaders in the firm and through its Women’s Leadership Initiative, the firm focuses on developing and retaining women leaders. Lawyers are able to discuss their experiences and readiness to take on new roles, learn how to promote their successes and identify skills that are needed to advance. The Flex-Time Attorney program is designed to promote work-life balance and create alternate career paths for Littler attorneys. Understanding that it is not enough to recruit diverse talent, Littler is a supporting member of the Project for Attorney Retention, a nonprofit initiative devoted to helping its members improve recruiting and retention efforts. Littler regularly participates in and hosts minority law student job fairs, sponsors minority law student association events, serves on career panels at schools and provides scholarships or intern/fellowships for minority students at schools including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Littler lawyers are connected to the community and are involved with many legal and professional organizations across the country including Corporate Counsel Women of Color, Filipino American Lawyers of San Diego, Hispanic National Bar Association, Korean American Bar Association of Northern California, and the National Lesbian & Gay Law Association.
2014 MCCA AWARDS
THOMAS L. SAGER AWARD
Tyree P. Jones Jr.
Partner, Director of Global Diversity ReedSmith LLP West Region R E E D S M I T H L L P ’s global initiative for
diversity and inclusion resonates with its attorneys throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm has 1,800 lawyers in 25 offices in the U.S., and represents leading international businesses from Fortune 100 corporations to emerging enterprises. Tyree P. Jones Jr. is a partner and has been the director of Global Diversity since 2007. “ReedSmith is very focused on an inclusive global workforce and understands that it may manifest differently across the continents,” Jones said. “It’s very important to understand the cross culturalism and how it plays out in talent.” The common denominator is that people want opportunities, recognition and promotion. ReedSmith has created a number of programs designed to attract diverse aspiring attorneys to the firm including the Diverse Scholars Program, a national program that recognizes first-year law students who demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion through their life experiences. They are awarded a $15,000 scholarship and a position in the summer program at one of the U.S. offices. The program complements other ongoing efforts to identify and attract diverse candidates through on-campus interviews and job fairs conducted by various affinity bar associations and student organizations such as Lavender Law, Hispanic National Bar Association, and the National Black Law Students Association. This past summer, more than 30 percent of ReedSmith’s 2012 Summer Associates were diverse. Women comprised 57 percent of the class. In an effort to assist law students academically, the Law Preview Program Scholarship was added in 2012. The program offers financial support to improve the academic performance of diverse law students in a summer law school preparatory curriculum at the University of Chicago. Many of ReedSmith’s attorneys have taken on informal mentoring roles. An active lateral recruitment campaign has helped to swell the minority ranks of attorneys resulting in 56 percent of new hires being minority and/or women. ReedSmith has taken a top-down approach toward retaining diverse talent by placing more direct responsi-
bility and accountability at the practice group and department head levels. Additionally, the firm offers diversity training which includes cross-cultural training for all partners, associates, and paraprofessionals to enhance their ability to manage across cultures and to improve their relationships with the firm’s multicultural client base. Mentoring is a core part of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Initiative, which includes the CareeRS program. Every associate is assigned a partner who acts as their career advisor. The formal relationships augment casual mentoring relationships already in place. Diversity and inclusion efforts are yielding good results. In 2001, at the inception of the formal diversity initiative, there were six minority partners firm wide. Today, there are 60. The growth is in large part a result of successful lateral recruitment of strong minorities at the associate and partner levels, and retention and promotion of those already at the firm. Along with promotion, ReedSmith highlights its Professional Work/Life Balance policy that allows alternative work arrangements without leaving the partnership track. The firm’s Women’s Initiative Network promotes the successful development of business by women lawyers, and the advancement of women lawyers to partnership and firm management. The Network launched a workshop series for the firm’s women lawyers who are at the pivotal career stages of junior level associates, mid- to senior-level associates, new partners and counsel, and are tailored to their experience levels. ReedSmith collaborates with numerous community and bar association events, recruitment programs, and other sponsorship and membership efforts designed to increase minority representation in law firms. The firm has also plays a key role with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). It was created in 2009 to advance diversity in the legal profession, and has membership of general counsel of Fortune 500 corporations and managing partners of the largest law firms. In 2011, the LCLD Fellows Program was launched to provide senior diverse attorneys in corporate law departments with the opportunity to be sponsored by corporate and law firm leaders. “This is our fourth Fellows class and we’ve seen relationships being built that benefit the Fellows and everyone involved,” Jones said. “They receive training and relationship building and the opportunity to hone those skills needed to take their career to the next level.” MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 35
2014 MCCA AWARDS
GEORGE B. VASHION INNOVATOR AWARD
McDermott Will & Emery LLP Brent A. Hawkins Partner and Co-chair, Racial & Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee RETENTION/DIVERSITY TALENT DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES R E S P O N D I N G T O T H E N E E D to implement programs to ensure lawyers of color advance and are retained, McDermott Will & Emery LLP Partner Brent A. Hawkins came up with the Diversity Talent Development Initiative. The innovative program traces back to McDermott’s involvement with the Chicago Committee for Minorities in Large Law Firms, now the Chicago Committee, which challenged its member firms to come up with an advancement and retention plan. Hawkins participated in the Chicago Committee working groups focusing on the retention and promotion of lawyers of color. It collaborates with member firms on various programs to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession. “I was part of a group of the Chicago Committee that realized that each firm would have to have a different model,” Hawkins said. “We want to try to ensure that law firms come up with a talent development initiative directly meant to make sure lawyers of color are retained and advance to partner, working with a board of advisors. Mentoring became secondary to championing and career advising.” McDermott Will & Emery is an 80-year-old international law firm with more than 1,100 lawyers and has headquarters in Chicago, IL. Hawkins, who is also co-chair of the McDermott’s Racial & Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittee and the Professional Development Department met with firm leaders and the executive director of the Chicago Committee. The group discussed and reviewed McDermott’s retention and promotion statistics and agreed that steps should be taken to improve the firm’s performance. The Racial & Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion Subcommittees and Professional Development Department designed an initiative that would dovetail with McDermott’s existing professional development programs and improve results. As part of the process, Hawkins analyzed the quantity and quality of the hours billed by the firm’s lawyers of color during their promotion years.
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The team interviewed several of the firm’s lawyers of color to get their input. Most said that a greater level of access to firm decision-makers would make a big difference. Creating relationships was of great importance, feeling that personal familiarity with leaders would help associates find internal advocates. The Diversity Talent Development Initiative was created to address those issues. Piloted in Chicago last year, plans are underway to expand to New York and Miami. The Initiative focuses on developing current lawyers of color to fully prepare them to represent McDermott clients in their highest level matters, be promoted to partnership, and assume leadership positions in the firm. The Initiative pairs racially and ethnically diverse associates with a board of advisors to create and review participants’ career plans and monitor the quality of their work assignments and professional development opportunities, both internally and externally. Each associate meets regularly with a board of advisors to review progress. “What I noted as part of my pushing this initiative was the support I got for changing the cultural feeling about developing talent,” Hawkins said. “Under our current leadership, we are really focused on making an initiative where diversity and cultural experience is a part of the fabric of the firm. It was important to me that it wasn’t just a diversity initiative, it was a firm initiative.” While it’s too early to collect meaningful data, a follow-up survey showed that 100 percent of participating associates indicated that the program was very helpful and made them feel supported. One participant stated, “I have had a very positive experience so far. My board has taken their roles very seriously and taken time to invest in my career.” Firm leadership has embraced the Diversity Talent Development Initiative and McDermott’s chairman emphasizes its importance to partners and routinely reaches out to sponsors to thank them for their participation. “I think there is obviously a lot of work that needs to be done and will be in the foreseeable future,” Hawkins said. “I think it is being successfully received and we will continue to expand over the next couple of years. Hopefully, one day it will include all of our offices.”
2014 MCCA AWARDS
GEORGE B . VASHIO N IN N O V A TO R AW A R D
Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP Miko Ando Brown Partner WOMEN’S INITIATIVES M O T I VAT E D B Y A S T R O N G D E S I R E to
see women move up the ranks and succeed in the legal profession, Miko Ando Brown a partner at Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP is on a crusade to strengthen the support network for women attorneys. The Women in Leadership Lecture Series (WILLS) was launched in 2013 to help Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell’s women lawyers build business relationships, identify mentors and sponsors, and create a culture in which women flourish. Brown said the idea for the lecture series came after attending an inspirational and empowering conference in 2012. “It was unlike any conference we had ever attended,” Brown said. “Typically you come away from conferences for women feeling pretty depressed after talking about all of the obstacles. This conference was different. They spent about 15 minutes talking about all of the challenges we face, which everybody knows. The rest of the time was spent on concrete strategies to make things better.” “Coming back, we said we need to create a program that empowers women and gives them practical skills that they can implement that day and make things better.” On the airplane ride home Brown sent the managing partner an email with details about what she wanted to create. Five months later it was up and running. The Denver-based civil litigation firm launched the lecture series in 2013 with the goal of addressing two fundamental challenges women attorneys face: to be a partner and leader in a law firm means establishing yourself as a rainmaker, and women attorneys face perceptions and often unconscious biases which create obstacles. Understanding those realities, with Brown as the driving force, the firm developed a program to advance rainmaking for its women attorneys. Its goals were to develop more high profile, high producing women attorneys, improve recruiting and retention by reinforcing the firm’s commitment to diversity and equity, and engage women leaders in law, business, and government who ultimately will become new clients and referral sources.
Instead of asking clients and prospects to come to listen to the firm’s lawyers, the plan for the Lecture Series was to flip the formula and invite clients and prospects to come to talk and share their experiences as part of a diverse community. The result is a regular series of panel discussions and networking events. Greater success for women attorneys translates to success for the firm. Through the lecture series, women are able to openly and regularly share business contacts, ideas, and experiences with others from diverse professions, ages, careers, and life stages. Most importantly, it promotes female leadership and visibility within and outside the firm. It also creates a forum for professionals from across the business landscape – including women and men – to engage in open, intimate conversations about gender, culture and careers. “The feedback has been incredible,” Brown said. “Internally it’s created optimism and enthusiasm that was never felt before. Every single female attorney is engaged. It has created a cohesiveness and boosted morale.” In 2014, 37 percent of all the firm’s lawyers were women and eight percent are lawyers of color; and 17 percent are partners. Four lecture series were scheduled in 2013. Panelists have included a Colorado Supreme Court Justice, numerous women general counsel of large nationwide companies, and lawyers from government agencies and other institutions. Various women partners and senior associates from different firms have served as moderators. In 2014, the Women in Leadership Lecture Series continues to grow with more scheduled. In addition to more discussions, the firm will continue the conversation online through its new WILLS LinkedIn group page. While the networking is helping women to connect to viable business prospects and grow their professional networks, it is also raises awareness of the obstacles women attorneys face. “In developing WILLS, we focused on doing what was right for the firm and our future generation of lawyers,” said Managing Partner Carolyn Fairless. “This award also reinforces that Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell is leading the legal profession in how to develop, support, and retain women attorneys.”
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2014 MCCA AWARDS
GEORGE B. VASHION INNOVATOR AWARD
New York City Bar Association and The Alliance of Securities and Financial Educators (ASAFE) PIPELINE INITIATIVES
S E L E C T E D D I V E R S E L AW S T U D E N T S in the New
York City area are gaining a once in a lifetime opportunity for exposure to securities and finance careers through an intensive six-part seminar series. Over the past two years, the New York City Bar Association Office for Diversity and Inclusion, the Alliance of Securities and Financial Educators (ASAFE), Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley have collaborated to provide the opportunity. Law students attending NYC area law and business schools are offered a core curriculum with notable faculty, strategies for professional development and access to develop relationships with practitioners known as advisor volunteers. The advisor volunteers meet with students after each seminar to talk about their practice and career path leading to their current position at a law firm, in-house counsel, or in government. Modeled after a similar program Morgan Stanley offered at Howard University Law School, the program was established in New York with sessions presented by leading experts in areas such as securities and finance law, corporate and regulatory compliance, and investment management. “We invited law students to nominate students,” Gabrielle Brown, director of Diversity and Inclusion at the New York Bar Association. “We selected 100 second and third year or recent graduates. This is still an area we are struggling to be as diverse as it could be. When companies call us with open positions, there are 100 students trained by us each year. We are getting a reputation for what we offer and the students benefit.” The program is designed to increase the competitiveness of students exploring securities and finance careers and increase diversity and inclusion of traditionally underrepresented groups in these professions. Faculty members have included Pierre Armand of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Barry P. Barbash of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Richard R. Best of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and Stuart Breslow of Morgan Stanley, among others.
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The interactive and engaging lectures offered perspectives on key laws and regulations, career development strategies, networking opportunities, and personal experiences from instructors. Topics covered include overview of securities and finance, ethics, corporation finance, consumer protection, investment management, enforcement, and transactional and compliance career strategies. In two years, the series has served 190 students from 15 law schools. Applicants are evaluated on their resume and statement of interest. Of these students, 58 identify as Black or African American, 32 Latino, 37 Asian American, 16 two or more races, 10 LGBT, three veterans, three students with disabilities, 64 first generation college graduates, and 101 are eligible for need-based financial aid. In addition to providing participants with an opportunity to learn substantive material from industry leaders, the series provides students with an opportunity to network professionally. More than 60 advisor-volunteers from 40 companies and law firms including the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. CFTC, Verizon, Morgan Stanley, and Guggenheim Partners. A number of participants have earned spots on the New York Bar’s committees within the Business and Finance Cluster and partner organizations have recruited students for entry-level positions. “It would be great to serve more students, but 100 is small enough that they can really connect with one another,” Brown said. “The New York City Bar Association tried to create a program that other cities can replicate. We work with a number of associations and other pipeline programs. It’s something we are hopeful about.”
2014 MCCA AWARDS
PAULA L. ETTELBRICK AWARD
Jennifer Levi, Esq.
Transgender Rights Project Director Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) G R O W I N G U P I N S O U T H F L O R I D A where
widespread protection for the gay community was challenged, Jennifer Levi’s passion for social justice was born. Since that time she has committed her life work to advocating on behalf of marginalized communities, transgender and LGBT rights. Her background in software development quickly gave way to her passion for advocacy. Prior to coming to GLAD, Levi was a law clerk to Judge Michael Boudin at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and worked as an associate attorney at two Chicago law firms. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago Law School. “The tech work became less significant and I had decided to find a way to make my passion full time,” Levi said. “I decided to go to law school. I always dreamed of working at an organization like GLAD.” That dream came true, and she is now the director of GLAD’s Transgender Rights Project. Levi is a nationally recognized expert on transgender legal issues. In 2011, she co-edited “Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy,” the first book to address legal issues facing transgender people in the family law context. It also serves as a tool for attorneys representing transgender cases. “We wanted to have in one place, tools for attorneys to use,” she said. “It’s a real passion for me. I began doing this work since the mid-90s when there was almost no legal protection for transgendered people, who are really vulnerable. We have been able to see an expansion of the legal protection. It’s very rewarding.” She is most proud of her work in cases helping to expand the rights of young people. She has been a champion of transgender children. She recently worked on a case in Maine where a transgender child was made to use a separate bathroom. The school justified the separation because of the objection of a family. Levi took the case to court challenging the treatment of the girl and to make sure she is treated as a girl in every way across school programs. “That decision from Maine’s high court is the first of its kind,” Levi said. “It sent a message across the country.”
Levi has served as counsel in a number of precedent-setting cases establishing basic rights for transgender people, including O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue which established that medical care relating to gender transition qualifies as a medical deduction for federal income tax purposes. In Doe v. Yunits, she represented a transgender student denied the right to attend school because of the clothing she wore, and Adams v. Bureau of Prisons, she successfully challenged a federal prison policy excluding medical care for transgender inmates who came into the system without a transition-related medical plan. She also worked on a number of high profile family law cases including the Miller-Jenkins case establishing full parental rights for a Vermont civil union spouse. Levi was co-counsel for the seven same-sex couples who sued the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for denying them the right to obtain marriage licenses in Goodridge et al v. the Department of Public Health. The appeal led to the landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that stated it was unconstitutional for the Commonwealth to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry. She is also committed to help train other attorneys to fight for the rights of transgender children, adults and families. Levi is a law professor at Western New England University. She serves on the Legal Committee of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and is a founding member of the Transgender Law & Policy Institute and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition. “There is a lot more work to do to fully normalize and integrate the experience of transgender people into the center of society,” she said. “There are still a lot of people who don’t know transgender people and don’t understand their legal concerns.” D&B
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Latino Luminaries BY MELANIE PADGETT POWERS
Latinos are the second fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, at 17 percent, according to the U. S. Census Bureau. They are also the largest minority group at 53 million—and that number is expected to skyrocket to 128.8 million by 2060. And yet, less than three percent of lawyers are Latino. Here, we spotlight lawyers who are working to change that through their leadership, mentorship, and simply by being a visible success story to young Hispanics.
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Elisa D. Garcia C.
Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Office Depot Inc. Boca Raton, Fla.
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HEN ELISA D. GARCIA C. started kindergarten, the school placed her in a speech class. Garcia spoke only Spanish, growing up in a tight-knit Spanish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Her grandparents were from Spain, and her family pronounced the letters “c” and “z” as a “th” sound, causing her teachers to think she had a lisp. For example, in Spain, “gracias” is pronounced “gra-thias.” But once her speech teacher instructed her to smile whenever she said a “c” or “z,” Garcia began to pronounce those letters correctly. Garcia’s experience of speaking only Spanish in her home and not learning English until she started school is a familiar one for many Latinos. But her post-college career has its own unique story. After college, Garcia began to work as an energy analyst. While working in the Caribbean, she was tapped to be the project manager for a new project in Somalia. At the same time, she was nominated to run for local office. She was only 23 years old. But she chose neither, instead applying to law school, encouraged by the local party chairman who recommended attorney experience if she wanted to follow her political aspirations in the future. “I certainly didn’t choose law; it chose me,” Garcia says. Garcia graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in Queens, N.Y., and became a corporate securities lawyer, joining Willkie, Farr & Gallagher in New York as an associate. The law firm, she says, “actually had partners whose names ended in a vowel,” which she took as a sign of diversity at the firm. For her hard work, the firm rewarded her with great assignments, but after five years she realized that what she enjoyed most was working with the same clients again and again. She started thinking about going in-house and soon accepted the corporate counsel position at GAF Corporation, North America’s largest manufacturer of commercial and residential roofing, headquartered in Wayne, NJ. Later, she became the Latin American regional counsel for Philip Morris International, then executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Domino’s
Pizza Inc., before joining Office Depot. She was recently named one of America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel by the National Law Journal. Mentors helped mold Garcia into the lawyer she is today, and she wants to pass along that nourishment. “After 29 years of practice I think the best way I can give to a profession that has given me so much is to encourage, coach and mentor others,” she says. Garcia serves on the board of the Institute of Inclusion in the Legal Profession and as an advisory member for the Corporate Pro Bono Institute. Earlier this year, she took the stage at her alma mater, St. John’s University School of Law, as the 2014 commencement speaker. “It was exciting and daunting, I have to say. I knew [my speech] had to be honest and encouraging and short,” she says. “I focused on the need to have a firm set of values, the need to act with courage and ethics early in their careers and the need to lead their clients to ethical decisions.” Knowing that graduates face job uncertainty and school loan worries, she encouraged them to remember why they chose law and to focus on the big picture. “I asked them to be adventurous and look for opportunities. Look at me—so many of them are like me: born, raised and educated in New York and the first in their families to go to college. I urged them to look beyond the five boroughs.” MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 41
Latino Luminaries
Cesar L. Alvarez Co-Chairman, Greenberg Traurig LLP Miami
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ESAR L. ALVAREZ is part of a very small group: Latinos who sit on corporate boards of directors. A 2013 study showed that Hispanics hold only 37 seats out of 5,511 at Fortune 500 companies, even though they are the largest minority population in the U.S. Alvarez serves on the public boards of Sears Holdings Corporation, MEDNAX Inc., St. Joe Co., Watsco Inc., Fairholme Funds Inc. and Intrexon Corporation. He participates for two reasons: one, to gain business insight that helps him as a leader at Greenberg Traurig, a multidisciplinary firm that serves a number of different industries; and two, to help place Latinos on corporate boards. He’s succeeded in both areas. “It’s hard to walk into the corporate boardroom world because a lot of it depends on the relationships you build in the business world,” he says. Boards are generally collegial environments, and members want to know you before they ask you to join, he explains. But that presents a catch-22 for underrepresented minorities, who have historically been shut out: How can they join if no one knows them? Alvarez has endorsed several Latinos for corporate boards, and board members often turn to him for recommendations. “I have definitely seen some movement of Latinos getting on boards—slow movement, but some movement,” he says, noting the critical need for diversity on corporate boards. “If you are not in the boardroom, it is harder to be heard and considered,” he says. “It is important that Latinos serve on boards so they fully participate at the highest levels of business life in our country.” His advocacy for diversity extends to Greenberg Traurig, when as CEO, he presided over unprecedented growth, including adding a significant number of diverse lawyers. “When I started as CEO of the firm, we had 250 lawyers and we were not ranked as a top 200 law firm in the country. We were able to grow the firm—with the help of
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a lot of people—to become one of the top 10 law firms in the country and with over 1,850 lawyers. We did it in less than 10 years.” The firm was recognized as the fastest-growing law firm in the U.S., and Alvarez has been the only Hispanic to lead a U.S. top 10 law firm. Additionally, the firm is ranked No. 1 among American top 100 firms for the number of African American partners and the number of Hispanic-American non-partners and No. 2 for the number of Hispanic-American partners. And to think Alvarez almost didn’t become a lawyer. He planned a career in business, but he completed his combined bachelor’s and MBA five-year program at the University of Florida at the same time his younger brother Arthur finished his bachelor’s. Arthur always dreamed of becoming a lawyer and “basically talked me into going to law school with him,” Alvarez says. That’s all it took. Their younger brother, Carlos, also studied law. All three now practice, which must be in their blood: Their father was a lawyer in Cuba before the family emigrated to the U.S.
Latino Luminaries
David Lopez
General Counsel U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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HIS IS A SPECIAL YEAR at the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as the agency that enforces federal anti-discrimination laws celebrates the 50th anniversary of the legislation responsible for its existence: the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And the agency’s general counsel, David Lopez, is at the center of the celebration. Appointed in 2010, Lopez had been supervisory trial attorney in the EEOC Phoenix District Office. He enjoyed fighting civil rights violations in his home state, but when President Obama tapped him to be general counsel—the first EEOC field trial attorney appointed to that position—Lopez found it “hard to say no to that.” Recently named one of America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel by the National Law Journal, Lopez has successfully tried and overseen many civil rights cases over the years, first in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, then at EEOC. He was the first to try a case stemming from the backlash to Muslim-Americans after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He won a religious discrimination case on behalf of a woman who was fired from Alamo Rental Car after she sought to wear a hijab during Ramadan, a month of fasting for Muslims worldwide. During Lopez’s tenure, EEOC secured a record $240 million in damages against Henry’s Turkey Service in Iowa for subjecting 32 mentally disabled men to severe abuse and discrimination. Lopez, who is Mexican-American, credits his parents for his passion for justice. Active in social causes, such as the farmworker movement, they taught him that people were obliged to make the world a better place. As a child, he admits, he tended to roll his eyes when they’d start talking like this.
“Your parents will say stuff…and you don’t appreciate it until later when the seeds start to germinate.” Before he enrolled at Arizona State University to pursue writing, he worked at a supermarket where he witnessed racial conflict and a cruel boss. As he began to truly see people’s struggles around him, his passions changed and he decided to become a civil rights lawyer. He’s proud that under his helm the EEOC has prevailed in over 90 percent of its trials, and he thinks often of the Civil Rights Act that started it all. “It fundamentally transformed America and enshrined this idea of equal opportunity and threw off the vestiges of the caste system,” he says. “Dreams will not be limited by race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. [At the EEOC] we’re vigilant about those values.” D&B
MELANIE PADGETT POWERS is a freelance writer and editor in the Washington, DC, area. She can be contacted at i.am. meledits@gmail.com or @MelEdits on Twitter. MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 43
CAREGIVER DISCRIM IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN ANYMORE BY JONATHAN GRONER
A male employee receives two weeks of paternity leave, while new mothers at his company get eight weeks of paid maternity leave. In another state, a mother of young twins is turned down for a promotion to a supervisory position because of her boss’s concerns that the work will become too stressful. Another employee who wants to take leave without pay to care for his elderly mother is told by his boss that his job may not exist when he returns.
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ll of these situations can invoke a new and rapidly growing area of the law known as family responsibilities discrimination or caregiver discrimination. Family responsibilities discrimination is bias “against workers who have family caregiving responsibilities, such as pregnant women, mothers and fathers of young children, parents of disabled children, and workers who care for their aging parents or sick spouses/partners,” according to the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. A pioneer in raising awareness of caregiver discrimination, the center operates a nationwide hotline for employees who believe they have suffered from it and helps them find lawyers in appropriate cases. But unlike employment discrimination on the basis of race or gender, there is no federal law that specifically bans discrimination against employees with family caregiver responsibilities. Workers must rely on a patchwork of federal, state and local laws that may or not fit a specific situation. 44 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
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Still, the Center for WorkLife Law says that the number of lawsuits of this type has quadrupled in recent years—many of them successful. A report for the Center, Family Responsibilities Discrimination: Litigation Update 2010 based on a nationwide survey of court filings and decisions, said that just over half the plaintiffs in this type of case prevailed, while the rate is at best 30 percent in employment discrimination cases in general. Men in particular are becoming more aware of their rights and more interested in seeking legal remedies for this type of problem, says Cynthia Calvert, a Maryland attorney who is a nationally known expert on caregiver discrimination and founder of the consulting firm Workforce 21C, which advises employers on the issue. “This is not just a women’s issue,” Calvert says. “For men who stay home with sick children or who take paternity leave, everything changes. They often are no longer viewed as masculine or as team players. They might even encounter outright hostility. They can be demoted or passed over in the workplace. This is a major and growing area.” For both men and women in the workplace, Calvert notes, the legal situation is evolving when it comes to caregiver discrimination. “Since there is no one federal statute that clearly prohibits this type of discrimination,” Calvert says, “plaintiffs are learning to use existing statutes in new ways or even to rely on the common law. Also, more and more localities have passed statutes that prohibit caregiver discrimination in some forms. As many as 85 cities and counties around the nation have passed such laws or ordinances.” Among the federal statutes that can be relevant are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Equal Pay Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and 42 U.S.C.§1983, a general civil rights provision. Although Title VII, the broad federal law that prohibits discrimination in the workplace, does not specifically prohibit discrimination on the basis of caregiver status, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the law, has issued guidelines on caregiver discrimination and when the facts will permit a case under Title VII. In 2011, the EEOC added many specifics to its landmark 2007 guidance for employers regarding caregiver discrimination. It noted that employers that adopt “flexible workplace policies that help employees achieve a satisfactory work-life balance may not only experience decreased complaints of unlawful discrimination, but may also benefit their workers, their customer base, and their bottom
MINATION: line. Numerous studies have found that flexible workplace policies enhance employee productivity, reduce absenteeism, reduce costs, and appear to positively affect profits.” The EEOC’s pragmatic approach to caregiver discrimination takes into account both the employer’s need to function effectively and the employee’s need to be treated fairly. The guidelines refer to the hypothetical case of “Nicole,” an employee who wants to participate in a largescale project for an important client. Nicole has a flexible schedule that enables her to work from home several days a week so she can care for her young son. Nicole volunteers to assist with the project and is selected for the team. The majority of the project’s work can be performed offsite and circulated electronically to team members. Nicole also volunteers to come to the office for meetings with the client. In that case, Nicole should be able to participate in the project free of bias. The EEOC also describes an alternative situation in which Nicole is not selected for the project. In that case, necessary files and equipment are stored on-site and cannot be removed. Impromptu team meetings occur frequently so project members can discuss new developments and share information. As a result, it would be very difficult for an employee who works remotely to participate in this assignment. The employer, according to the EEOC, would be justified in refusing Nicole’s request to participate in the project. The courts have made it clear that when caregiver discrimination acts as a proxy for gender discrimination—for example, when an employer stereotypes women with children as caregivers while men with children are not viewed as caregivers—Title VII can apply. This might occur, for example, if an employer gives assignments requiring extensive travel only to male employees, assuming that female employees with children will not wish to travel because they are primary caregivers, while men will not take caregiving responsibilities into account. In 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, in Chadwick v. Wellpoint, Inc., held that a mother of four children could pursue a Title VII-based claim that she was denied a promotion despite her excellent work performance. She alleged that her employer deemed that she had “too much on her plate” with familial responsibilities to do well in the new position. “Chadwick has presented sufficient evidence of sexbased stereotyping to have her day in court,” the appeals court wrote.
Although men increasingly invoke gender stereotypes as a basis for their caregiver-discrimination cases, Calvert says, courts are more accustomed to seeing women as victims of such bias, so men do not fare as well in these cases. “It takes a while for legal norms to catch up with social norms,” Calvert says. These cases are hard to pursue for another reason: Many employers believe that they are “being nice” to women employees by seeing that those with young children or with responsibilities toward aging parents don’t, for example, receive challenging assignments or need to travel for business, says Rebecca Pontikes, a Boston labor and employment attorney. “They just don’t realize it’s a stereotype of women employees, so it’s hard to settle these cases until the employer knows that a judge will allow the case to go to trial,” Pontikes says. “The same would apply if a male employee was told by an employer that he shouldn’t be seen as a caregiver. Once there is a ruling by a judge, these cases can settle.” Barry Hartstein, a shareholder at Littler Mendelson, a national law firm that represents companies in employment matters, says the most important task for lawyers like him is to educate employers about the changing legal landscape and the workforce. “This is an area where the landscape for employers is evolving on a multi-dimensional basis,” Hartstein says. “You now have to juggle not just Title VII, but also the ADA, the FMLA, and state law developments as well. So my starting point for employers with multistate operations is that there’s a lot to consider and employers need to stay abreast of federal, state and local developments in the human resources arena.” He adds, “These days, husbands, particularly in the millennial generation, want to be more than just breadwinners. They want to have the chance to take care of their kids, and employers need to understand that. I’m a strong believer that we on the defense side need to be proactive and stay ahead of the curve to help keep our clients out of trouble.” D&B JONATHAN GRONER is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and
a former managing editor of Legal Times. He can be reached at jonathangroner@gmail.com or on Twitter at @jgronerpr.
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STAPLES’ GC MENTORS STAFF WITH NEXT GENERATION LEADERS IN MIND BY JENNIFER J. SALOPEK
General Counsel Mike Williams has a stellar record of creating successful, diverse legal teams. Find out how he works in tandem with Associate General Counsel Cristina Gonzalez to create opportunities for leadership and exposure to the nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors.
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H
OLA means “hello” in Spanish. It also means that Staples, Inc., provides a welcoming environment for its Latino and Hispanic employees, thanks to the efforts of vice president and associate general counsel Cristina Gonzalez. Although Gonzalez bears weighty responsibility in the Office of General Counsel, she is also devoted to making Staples a welcoming employer that lives its commitment to diversity. In the environment created by General Counsel Mike Williams, she is able to do both. Their shared values around diversity, and a strong mutual respect, foster a collegial working relationship. Gonzalez is responsible for board and public company matters, corporate governance and securities compliance. She works directly with the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors, a relationship that is unusual for most associate general counsel. She orients new board members and keeps them informed
on company and industry trends and shareholder concerns. Such access to and direct communication with board members, she believes, makes her a more effective lawyer. “It’s a bit unusual for someone like myself to work directly with the board,” says Gonzalez, who has been with Staples since 2008. “It gives me developmental opportunities to see the interactions that very senior leaders expect from an attorney. And it gives me an opportunity to understand what I’m drafting or how I’m advising in the unfiltered context of their concerns.” When Williams joined Staples in November 2012, he set out to create an environment that permits every member of his 57-person team to do their most and their best, and to honor their values and passions while doing good work. “My job is to accomplish Staples’ corporate mission and to protect the brand,” Williams says. “To do that, I believe in defining the parameters in which people operate, then letting them do their jobs. There’s not enough time in the day to micromanage.” Williams describes Gonzalez as an invaluable educator and trusted advisor who helped him learn the department and its people when he first came on board. “She was informative but not pedantic,” he says, then laughs as he describes their mutual communication style as “Laverne and Shirley”—in other words, friendly, casual and accessible. He is committed to empowering and developing the members of his department. Giving them responsibility and access, such as Gonzalez has with the board, is good for individual lawyers and the work of the department, he believes. “It’s my responsibility to develop the next generation of leaders for this department. I’m not going to leave it to human resources or a succession planning committee,” he says. “If I won the lottery and decided not to come to work, there are several people who could step up and do the job. Bench strength and diversity are key.” Gonzalez says the company’s commitment to diversity is authentic. “The board is keenly aware of the importance of diversity. We have good gender and ethnic/minority representation that is above national averages. We’re very proud of that,” she says. For Williams, diversity is just good business. He’s been recognized for his approach: While serving as general counsel at Sony Electronics, Williams received the MCCA Employer of Choice Award for the Western region in 2008. “Our customers are diverse,” he says. “We must bring in many different perspectives in order to advise our business unit clients with creative problem solving.”
Williams notes that his commitment to diversity extends beyond the makeup of his own department to that of external firms and even staffing of matters. Although HOLA pre-dated Williams’ arrival at Staples, he continued to support Gonzalez’s efforts in advocating for diversity. She co-founded HOLA, Staples’ Hispanic/ Latino employee affinity group, and participated in the Global Diversity Council, a 15-member group of business leaders, including the CEO, who oversee worldwide diversity strategies and metrics within the company. Both activities have lent richness to Gonzalez’s career. “They gave me the opportunity to work with senior leaders in human resources and the business units. The work took me out of my comfort zone and enabled me to be viewed not only as a lawyer but as a leader, and to expand my networking base,” she says. As an example, she recounts getting to know the President of Staples’ North American Stores & Online, who acted as executive sponsor of HOLA and whom she now considers a mentor. A native of Miami, Florida, Gonzalez grew up in a Spanish-speaking home. After graduate school and law school in Washington, DC, she moved to Boston, where she went into private practice. “There were not a lot of people like me at the law firm; I felt a little out of place,” she says. “Still, I found mentors. There were people who looked out for me.” The partnership track didn’t appeal. Armed with an MBA, the corporate setting beckoned. Gonzalez’s efforts to promote and honor diversity at Staples yield both business success and personal satisfaction. “Our customers, our business and the demographics of our country are changing,” she says. “What drives me in my diversity efforts is the benefit of inclusion—the different thoughts, ideas, cultures, and backgrounds of diverse people coming together.” Williams and Gonzalez value their involvement with MCCA. “The events are a treasure trove of talent for networking, and give me a great opportunity to evaluate people and teams and their commitment to diversity,” Williams says. “MCCA is helping to develop attorneys who are more inclusive, and that makes them better lawyers for their companies. Great talent doesn’t have to look the same,” Gonzalez concludes. JENNIFER J. SALOPEK is
a freelance writer based in McLean, Virginia. She can be reached at jjsalopek@cox.net. MCCA.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 DIVERSITY & THE BAR 47
MOVERS & SHAKERS
H. VINCENT MCKNIGHT, JR.
ALTOMEASE R. “AL” KENNEDY
JOSEPH M. HANNA
Partner Sanford Heisler LLP
Partner Sanford Heisler LLP
Chair Goldberg Segalla’s Diversity Task Force
H. Vincent McKnight, Jr., and Altomease R. “Al” Kennedy, former principals of McKnight & Kennedy LLC, are now partners with Sanford Heisler LLP. With a focus in General Services Administration procurement, they have amassed more than $150 million in GSA recoveries. McKnight & Kennedy was founded in the nation’s capital in 2009. Prior to starting the firm, they were co-lead counsel for the Relator in the then largest-ever GSA procurement fraud settlement in history. McKnight will be the Co-Chair of Sanford Heisler’s National Whistleblower Practice. Born in Washington, D.C., with deep roots in the community, McKnight has extensive litigation experience, having tried many cases on behalf of plaintiffs in claims involving personal injury, the Federal Employers Liability Act, employment discrimination and medical malpractice. McKnight is known, in part, for his victory in the first ever departure from the employment-at-will doctrine in the D.C. Court of Appeals. A co-founder of the Qui Tam Litigation Subgroup of the American Trial Lawyers Association, McKnight regularly lectures and teaches on topics related to the False Claims Act and qui tam enforcement for professional audiences. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Kennedy has extensive litigation experience having tried many cases to verdict over her career. She has worked for the National Urban League; worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Commerce; worked in the Office of General Counsel for PEPCO; worked as a partner at Ashcraft & Gerel, LLP; and was a founding member of McKnight & Kennedy. She graduated from Georgetown University Law School.
48 DIVERSITY & THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014
Joseph M. Hanna, the founder and Chair of Goldberg Segalla’s Diversity Task Force and Chair of the firm’s Sports and Entertainment Practice Group, has been elected President of the Minority Bar Association of Western New York Foundation, Inc. Mr. Hanna has a long history of involvement with the MBAWNY, including a tenure as the organization’s president. As president, Hanna will oversee the foundation’s efforts to grow minority representation in the legal community and work with local colleges to award scholarships to deserving students. Hanna has received numerous recognitions for his diversity-focused efforts, including the George B. Vashon Innovator Award from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and the Diversity Trailblazer Award from the New York State Bar Association, and he serves in diversity-related positions for organizations such as the American Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.
MCCA.COM
LAURA LEWIS
KAMAL JAFARNIA
General Counsel Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Counsel Greenberg Traurig LLP
Laura Lewis, chief assistant general counsel, has been promoted to SMUD’s general counsel. She replaced John Di Stasio who retired. Lewis joined SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility Distrtict) in 1997 as a staff attorney and served in that capacity until 1999. She served as an attorney at the San Francisco law firm Davis Wright Tremaine until 2002, when she returned to SMUD and served as senior attorney through 2010. She served as assistant general counsel through 2012 before becoming chief assistant general counsel in 2013. Lewis is a member of the American Bar Association and the State Bar of California. She earned her juris doctor at McGeorge School of Law, Order of the Coif and her bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of California, San Diego.
Kamal Jafarnia has joined the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, as of counsel in its REIT, corporate & securities and financial regulatory and compliance practices. He has over two decades of experience as an attorney and compliance professional and most recently practiced in the financial services and products group at Alston & Bird LLP. Jafarnia focuses his practice on REITs, Business Development Companies and securities matters. He also has in depth experience in FINRA matters having served as a compliance professional for several investment program sponsors, and as chief compliance officer both for several FINRA broker-dealers member firms and a number of registered investment advisory firms. While working in the industry, he held numerous securities registrations, including that of a general securities principal.
Diverse Perspectives
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To learn more about Shook’s Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, please contact:
Kori S. Carew, Esq.
Director, Strategic Diversity Initiatives
(816) 474-6550 | kcarew@shb.com www.shb.com
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