Two years after its formation, Schiff Hardin spinoff Riley, Safer, Holmes & Cancila has elected former judge and co-founding partner Patricia Brown Holmes as its first managing partner.

A vote last week at Riley Safer officially made Holmes its new leader, a move that could also make her the first African-American woman to head a national firm that is not minority- or women-owned.

“To be the first to shatter the glass ceiling, I think, is an enormous responsibility,” Holmes said. “But I'm hopeful that what it means is that fairly soon, in the next five to 10 years, it's commonplace.”

Almost all of the African-Americans leading firms in the Big Law universe, an already small collective, are men. Holmes is one of only a handful of minority female leaders in that group. Cravath, Swaine & Moore elected Faiza Saeed as its first female presiding partner in 2016, while Portland, Oregon-based Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt elected Graciela Gomez Cowger last year as its first CEO.

A 2017 study by the National Association for Law Placement found that minority women continued to be the most dramatically underrepresented group at the partnership level in the legal industry, making up only 2.9 percent of partners nationwide. African-American women, who have long outnumbered black men enrolled in law schools, still only account for 0.66 percent of all partners.

“Hopefully, African-American females will be prominently displayed among partnership and management in large law firms in the very near future, because now the glass [ceiling] has been shattered,” said Holmes, who before starting Riley Safer served as co-head of the white-collar investigations and corporate compliance practice at Schiff Hardin.

Riley Safer was founded in early 2016 after the departure of 22 partners from Schiff Hardin, including Holmes and 13 other equity partners. Since then, Riley Safer has rapidly expanded, and the firm now has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Chicago; New York; and San Francisco. Despite that growth, diversity has always remained a key focus of the firm.

“We are a very diverse firm by nature,” said Holmes, who before joining Schiff Hardin in 2005 was the youngest African-American woman to serve as an associate judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago. “We're the first firm that I know of to have an African-American female's name on the door and now managing partner.”

Within Riley Safer's attorney ranks, 52 percent are female and 29 percent are minorities. Almost half—41 percent—of the firm's partnership is made up of women, while 32 percent of partners are minorities, exceeding averages at most firms across the country.

And continuing Riley Safer's focus on diversity and inclusion will be a key part of Holmes' tenure as managing partner of the firm.

“I think it will always be at the forefront because our clients require it,” said Holmes, noting that many of her firm's Fortune 100 clients have been collecting diversity statistics from their legal service providers. “They are taking a front row in leading the diversity efforts in law firms and we're there because we know and believe very strongly that diverse teams get better results.”

In addition to diversity, Holmes said she plans on building a firm that can overcome obstacles and withstand challenges presented by a rapidly changing legal industry.

“I want to make sure that we implement a structure that will help us transcend into the future,” Holmes said. “I want to make sure that we're going to exist 50, 60 and 100 years from now.”

While head count and gross revenue fell again last year at Schiff Hardin, Holmes' former home, Riley Safer is eager to keep growing. The firm picked up almost a dozen new lawyers last summer in Chicago, led by veteran sports industry litigator and ex-Schiff Hardin antitrust leader Gregory Curtner and Bryan Cave's former Chicago managing partner Joseph McCoy.

Holmes, who once battled lymphoma, said that Riley Safer has no plans to merge but expects the firm to continue bringing more corporate partners into the fold.