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Notes from Breakout Sessions of the Four Strategic Committees

We are posting in this section of the LCLD website the notes from the Annual Meeting Day-Two working sessions of the four strategic committees:

Pipeline Committee
Benchmark Committee
Partnerships Committee
Talent Development Committee

Our purpose in posting these working notes is both to give a flavor of the discussions and to help LCLD members stay apprised of the committees' thinking as each of the committees refines its strategic plan. Those strategic plans, once completed, will also be posted on the LCLD website.

Photos from October 2010 Annual Meeting

Click on the link below to launch the slide show and a message from Robert Grey.

LCLD 2010 Annual Meeting Slide Show & Message

October 2010 Annual Meeting highlights

Read about the Oct. 7-8 annual meeting, as reported by The Am Law Daily. Please click here to read the article.

Four Strategic Initiatives Rolled Out at First Meeting Of Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

Washington, D.C.--A “sold-out” conference of general counsel and managing partners launched four strategic initiatives at the first meeting of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity in Washington, D.C. Oct. 7-8, to advance diversity in the legal profession.

“It is the task of this generation in the law,” said  LCLD Chair Rick Palmore, GC for General Mills, “to take the baton and win this leg of the race.  Palmore is the author of the 2004 “Call to Action” and a founder of the one-year-old LCLD.

Attendance was expected to be 175 at the conference. The final tally was 210. The conference was titled “OPEN,” with the four letters standing for “Obligation, Power, Engagement, Now”.

“This attendance level is hard evidence of the importance that the leaders of the preeminent legal organizations in the country assign to this task of advancing legal diversity,” said LCLD Executive Director Robert J. Grey Jr. , former president of the American Bar Association.

“And the attendance is especially noteworthy, “ he said, “since GCs and MPs themselves had to be in attendance and could not send substitutes. In fact, we were  very strict in enforcing that.”

In addition to hearing addresses on legal diversity from U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Harvard Professor David Wilkins, and a special video message from attorney and civil rights pioneer Vernon Jordan, the attendees formed “shirt-sleeve” working sessions to hammer out details of LCLD’s four strategic initiatives.

First strategic initiative out of the gate will be a year-long “Fellows” program, to launch in February 2011 that was introduced by “Talent Development” committee chair Greg Jordan, Managing Partner of ReedSmith law firm. That program will provide leadership, relationship-building, and networking training in addition to unprecedented access to GCs and MPs for high-potential attorneys of diverse backgrounds.

Allstate General Counsel Michele Mayes described a second LCLD strategic “Partnerships” initiative designed to encourage wider use of “diversity secondments”, which will give diverse attorneys exposure to leaders of client organizations through assignments which could run for six months. Mayes’ committee also explored ways to adapt the National Football League’s “Rooney Rule” which requires interviewing of individuals of diverse background for senior positions.

A “Benchmark” committee, led by Fannie Mae General Counsel Tim Mayopoulos, is developing new metrics designed to “get behind the numbers” that measure diversity in legal organizations. The committee’s research process will include both the collection of quantitative data and in-depth interviews with GCs and MPs of LCLD member organizations.

Microsoft GC Brad Smith presented plans from the LCLD “Pipeline Committee” that   focus on strategies to increase the numbers of diverse students who choose law school and move on to careers in the law.  The committee also considering ways to provide “connective tissue” for the legal pipeline which was described as “broken” at key points.

“I was excited by the energy and enthusiasm at this meeting,” said Clorox General Counsel Laura Stein. “And it’s important that we’re developing specific strategies to attack this issue.”


For more information, contact: Robert Grey at rgrey@lcldnet.com.