The in-house legal community is trying to grapple with the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, and the increased workloads that come with such a crisis. But some in the community are worried that diversity and inclusion may fall off the priority checklist.

Cadence Counsel, along with Lateral Link and Bridgeline Solutions, announced a program this week to connect lawyers experiencing temporary job loss with short-term gigs at corporate legal departments.

"There are candidates who have been displaced across the spectrum that includes an extremely diverse talent pool that finds themselves out of work right now," said Cadence Counsel CEO Monique Burt Williams. "Our focus is to match appropriately a candidate who's available with opportunities that are going to mutually benefit both the clients and the candidates. Diversity and inclusion is obviously important to the company as well, but that's a passion of mine."

While the search for contract lawyers is expected to climb as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis, diversity and inclusion crusaders want to make sure lawyers on the diversity spectrum don't get shut out as they had been after the Great Recession.

Seyfarth Shaw announced this week its new program, The Belonging Project, to mentor diverse lawyers and law students through the long-term employment impact of the pandemic. Diversity Lab, Minority Corporate Counsel Association and Corporate Counsel Women of Color are a few of the bar organizations that have partnered with the law firm on this project.

"We need people thinking about how they can set themselves up for success," said Kori Carew, chief inclusion and diversity officer at Seyfarth.

Also this week the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms gave a LinkedIn shoutout to Verizon for standing by its diversity and inclusion initiatives in a letter to outside counsel.

"During tough times in the past, many law firms pulled back on or placed diversity and inclusion efforts on the back burner," reads the letter signed by Verizon chief legal officer Craig Silliman. "They also engaged in layoffs that disproportionately impacted diverse lawyers. As the data below show, the 2008 recession did tremendous damage to diversity in law firms. If we don't all continue to prioritize diversity, history could repeat itself."

How is your legal department making sure diversity & inclusion goals don't slip due to COVID-19? Please let me know at [email protected].

Office 365 For Dummies offers a basic overview of cloud computing and goes on to cover Microsoft cloud solutions and the Office 365 product in a language you can understand. This includes an introduction to each component which leads into topics around using each feature in each application. READ MORE

I think the world has experienced a tremendous amount of change across geographies and industries. The legal skill set in a lot of ways is not the only skill set that's qualified to deal with those changes by any stretch of the imagination. But it does have a lot of unique characteristics that allow lawyers with other training to manage change.

- Joseph Blanco, who previously served as GC of Atlanta-based claims management firm Crawford & Co. and was recently named president, on more GCs being tapped for higher C-suite roles.

|

What's Happening

How Legal Memo Database Is Helping In-House

Corporate Counsel reported last month on the new Stanford Law School COVID-19 Memo Database that has filed away all those law firm coronavirus memos in one place. Now, GCs are letting us know how the database is helping them find answers to their coronavirus-related legal questions.

SurveyMonkey CLO Lora Blum said she tried to organize the "overwhelming" volume of memos into separate email folders.

"But the amount of time it took to see where the focus areas were of each memo was too much," she said. "I heard about the database through a couple of networks and checked it out. It was incredibly useful to have so much information categorized in an organized way that is pretty easily searchable."

One of the main questions Stanford is receiving from GCs: Which memos provide guidance on reopening business?

Overprotecting Data Before Workforce Returns

With talks of reopening places of business, in-house counsel may have to update their cybersecurity policies with making sure health data and other data are protected from pandemic-related threats.

COVID-19 has made health data even more fragile with the possibility of employees wondering who among them had been exposed or diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Association of Corporate Counsel CLO Susanna McDonald said she expects one of the challenges GCs may face will be "the balance of keeping employee's health information private, while also notifying other employees if someone in the office tests positive, and if they might have been exposed."

Fewer GC Appointments Made Public

The month of April started with millions of employees, including in-house counsel, working from home. With these significant changes, many companies seem to have opted to not officially announce a new legal leader.

Our monthly roundup had noticeably fewer top lawyer announcements. Crowdfunding website Kickstarter and foreign language app maker Duolingo were a few of the name-recognizable companies to crown new GCs.

Corporate Counsel also spoke with other GCs at Hanover Insurance Group and cryptocurrency exchange Kraken who discussed taking on a job during the greatest public health crisis of our time.

|

Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards

Corporate Counsel's Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards awards deadline for submissions is July 8.

We are looking for general counsel and law firm partner applicants in the following categories:

Crisis Management: Industry – General Counsel Banking & Finance Insurance Transportation & Infrastructure Manufacturing & Chemicals Technology, Media & Telecom Retail & Consumer Goods

In-House & Law Firm Awards Innovative Leadership Thought Leadership Collaborative Leadership Women's Legal Awards General Counsel of the Year/Managing Partner of the Year Lifetime Achievement

If you know a general counsel or law firm partner who qualifies for a WIPL award, then please apply here.

|

Best Legal Departments

Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Departments awards deadline for submissions is June 15.

We are looking for general counsel and in-house legal department applicants in the following categories:

U.S. Legal Department of the Year

Compliance Department of the Year

Startup Solo GC of the Year

Best Use of Technology

General Counsel of the Year

Best Deputy or Associate GC

Champion of Diversity Award

Best Legal Ops Team

Outstanding Community Service Award

If your general counsel and legal department qualify for a Best Legal Departments award, then please apply here.

|

On the Move

Juliette Pryor is the new GC and executive vice president at Albertsons. She joins the grocer giant as it experiences "significant increases in customer traffic" amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Colin Levy tweeted Wednesday he lost his job as Salary.com GC due to the COVID-19 economic impact. "It was brutal," he said. "I made many friends that I can no longer get to see each day and, more importantly, help each day. Help make sales. Help counsel. Help support."

Bed Bath & Beyond, which has been struggling to get essential business status, named Arlene Hong as CLO. Hong, a former lawyer for Amazon.com Inc. and J. Crew Group Inc., replaces Allan Rauch, who departed the retailer in December after a board shakeup.

Deutsche Bank group GC and chief governance officer, Florian Drinhausen, has stepped down after two years in the role. Karen Kuder has been tapped to be the new global GC. Kuder originally joined Deutsche Bank in 1992 as a bank clerk and returned to the bank in 2000 with a law degree.