Female Partners at Shook Hardy & Bacon


Compared to 20% Nationally


26.7%


and seven additional staff members, all working to ensure diversity and inclusion continue to thrive in the workplace. Nine subcommittees work on specifi c diversity eff orts, including recruiting, client relations, attorney engagement and advancement, buy-in, education and awareness, staff diversity, women’s initiatives, and policy oversight. During the committee’s annual meeting, members,


32


along with other invited fi rm offi cials, brainstorm adapta- tions to the checklist. T e fi nal decision-making revolves around committee member input, and attorney and partner feedback throughout the year. Since the amount of energy and time involved with diff erent action items varies, Carew says the fi rm may consider a weighting system. “T roughout the year, we receive comments from people.


We consider them…and where other needs are. We received some comments on the checklist but there are also some things that I would like to see,” says Carew, a former litiga- tion attorney whose passion for diversity partially originates with her personal background. She was born in Canada of Sierra Leone descent and grew up in a northeast Nigerian region currently plagued by religious and ethnic strife. T e checklist provides an opportunity for attorneys and


partners to make concrete contributions to the environment of diversity and inclusion at SH&B through action items such as actively recruiting diverse, lateral talent, and submit- ting ideas to improve diverse retention and promotion. But the checklist also fosters an atmosphere at SH&B where diversity and inclusion dialogue is commonplace and inter- action among diverse attorneys and partners is the norm. “It forces associate X, who wants to make partner and


may not be that interested in the diversity initiatives, to go have lunch with someone or meet with someone who doesn’t look like them,” says Guled Adam, a fi fth-year associate of Tanzanian and Somali descent. “In general, it makes people gravitate toward others that don’t look like them.” Women at American law fi rms with 251 to 500 attorneys


make up, on average, 20 percent of partners and 15 percent of equity partners, while their representation at SH&B is, respectively, 26.7 percent and 22.6 percent, according to National Association for Law Placement 2012 statistics.


DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2013


Female Equity Partners at Shook Hardy & Bacon


Compared to 15% Nationally


22.6%


National averages for racial and ethnic minority male and female partners registered at 4.37 percent and 2.07 percent respectively, while SH&B claimed 5.34 percent minority male partners and 3.88 percent minority female partners. “Shook Hardy & Bacon is walking the talk when it


comes to diversity,” says Andrea Juarez, interim executive director at the Center for Legal Inclusiveness. SH&B works in conjunction with the Center for Legal


Inclusiveness, a fee-based advocacy nonprofi t based in Denver, to devise and hone inclusion initiatives. Despite the challenges the law community continues to grapple with regarding diversity and inclusion, Juarez says SH&B has developed the fundamental principles essential to shepherd the fi rm in the right direction. “T eir fi rm and leadership understand the reality that


for an organization to genuinely become more diverse and inclusive there needs to be full-fi rm commitment,” says Juarez. “Diversity and inclusiveness eff orts can’t be left to only the diversity committee or even just rubber-stamped by an executive committee. For real organizational impact there needs to be involvement from attorneys at all levels.” According to Juarez, many of the fi rms that partner


with the Center for Legal Inclusiveness are now employing checklists as a means to keep attorneys, partners, and staff members vigilant about diversity. In recent years, SH&B has been showered with awards


and accolades praising its diversity and inclusion prog- ress. In 2011 and 2012, the fi rm obtained Gold Standard Certifi cation from the Women and Law Empowerment Forum. In order to receive that acknowledgment, SH&B was required to meet or exceed three of six criteria demon- strating female promotion success, as defi ned by the forum. SH&B surpassed all six criteria. T e fi rm was awarded the title of “Best Places to Work


for LGBT Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign from 2010 to 2013. SH&B also received the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s T omas L. Sager Award in 2001, 2002, and 2010. T is year, the fi rm is a fi nalist for the award. Despite its accomplishments, there’s room for improve- ment in SH&B’s quest to strength its diversity representation.


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