Greetings. It's been a sobering week in America. The fate of law firms' diversity and inclusion efforts amid the pressures of the coronavirus crisis was a fraught subject even before the death of George Floyd and a nationwide response cast a harsh spotlight on indelible racial inequalities. It's worth a look at what the current moment means for these initiatives, in both rhetoric and substance. Want to weigh in? Email me here. Want this dispatch in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here.

Rhetoric and Substance

Since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic pushed the U.S. economy into an unexpected but severe recession, I've heard a number of industry watchers voice concerns about law firms' diversity and inclusion efforts.

Specifically, there's a pronounced fear that as firms look to pare down costs to prepare for a nebulous future, professionals and programs that focus on rectifying the persistent under-representation of minorities in firms, particularly at their upper levels, will be high on the list of expendables.

That perspective is informed by the experience of the last recession, which saw minority attorneys leave the profession in droves. Harsh cuts across the junior ranks of law firms had a disproportionate impact on attorneys for color. That's had a long-term impact on racial and ethnic diversity in the partnership ranks.

"There's a real risk to diversity initiatives," Heidi Gardner, distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School, told me several weeks ago as part of a wider conversation about firms' financial responses to COVID-19. "There's a chance that in this self-preservation mode, firms will lose sight of how to use their energy to turn legal into a force for good."

"Even at firms that are struggling right now in terms of their financial position or uncertainty over sustainability in the long term, every single one of those people are going to be waking up a year or two or 10 from now to the question, 'What did you do doing the crisis?" she continued.

That was before the death of George Floyd at the hands of several members of the Minneapolis Police Department cast a sharp light on another, more-enduring emergency infecting American society: the stubborn persistence of racial inequities.

This week, as U.S. cities have been consumed by largely non-violent protests, my inbox has been filling up with emails from firms and other legal industry players, decrying the toll of institutional racism and voicing their commitment to equal justice throughout the nation.

Eager to get beyond the rhetoric, yesterday I called up Bryan Parker, an African American attorney who started his law career on the M&A team at Shearman & Sterling. After a spell as a start-up CEO, Parker in 2019 launched Legal Innovators, which focuses on on-demand legal staffing, training, diversity and pricing.

Parker said that he recognizes the impulse to cut costs amid the pandemic. But he argues that a robust commitment to diversity and concerns about profitability aren't mutually exclusive: "Number one, this is the right thing to do. Number two, it's bad for business if you cannot put a diverse team in front of clients."

As his business provides junior talent to both corporate law departments and law firms, he's in regular contact with a number of firms. Those he's talked to say they're commitment remains. Seyfarth & Shaw and Locke Lord are participating, along with a Chase Bank representative and others, on an upcoming Legal Innovators forum on diversity and inclusion later this month.

Parker also recognizes that, thanks to the events of the last week, firms are broadly aware of the optics attached to visibly taking their foot off the pedal with regard to these initiatives. "I think people would be loath to do that," he says.

But the reality is that law firms aren't public corporations. We don't have a perfect view inside to see how actions match up with talk. The example of Colinford Mattis, the furloughed African-American Pryor Cashman corporate associate arrested over the weekend for throwing explosive devices at police cars in New York is instructive. Was his furloughed status simply representative of the climate for M&A work at the moment, or is it one data point in support of a larger, but so far invisible, pattern of attorneys of color taking an asymmetrical blow?

"It does, in light of '08 and '09, make us ask the question, 'How are these furloughs going?'" Parker said.

Parker's own experiences at Shearman in the mid-1990s showcase an idealized way of incorporating diverse attorneys. On his arrival at the firm, he was paired with one of the firm's M&A stars, Jonathan Greenblatt, as a mentor. Twenty-five years later, they're still working together: Greenblatt is co-founder of Legal Innovators.

"Are they on the right kind of deals? Do they have proper exposure? If they make a mistake, is someone counseling them and giving them another chance?" Parker asks of diverse lawyers. He also cited other measures needed to build that pipeline, such as quarterly check-ins, designated mentorship sessions, and clearly delineated growth objectives.

This all requires a serious commitment of time and energy by the same individuals who are already charged with bringing in the revenue that keeps a firm humming. But as the events of the last week illustrate, the push towards social equality is an unfinished fight. And the spectators are hardly disinterested.

In the News

Apologizes for the delayed arrival of this briefing. In a week—and, really, a year—marked by disruptions, a 24-hour power outage is small potatoes. But I'll also use that to justify a shorter than usual list of links.

➤➤ The Illinois Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism, dubbed 2Civility, has an interest in the evolution of the legal work that goes beyond that state. Executive director Jayne Reardon has been a valuable voice in the conversation about regulatory change in the profession. Now, as courts, law firms and legal organizations across the country reopen, the organization is taking a look at what the new normal looks like. They're soliciting video contributions from judges, lawyers, legal academics, law students and other professionals that answer one question: "As we reimagine the legal profession, what's one change you hope to see moving forward?" Click here if you're interested in participating.

Wash your hands, keep your distance, try your best to stay sane, and you'll hear from me again next Thursday. Thanks again for reading, and please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. Sign up here to receive The Law Firm Disrupted as a weekly email.