Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM

As the legal industry strives to improve its record on diversity, the world's top-grossing law firm is among those turning to professional help.

Kirkland & Ellis said Tuesday that it had hired Joi Bourgeois as its director of diversity and inclusion from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where New York-based Bourgeois held a parallel position for the last two years.

"We have known Joi for a long time through her work as a consultant and she has been a trusted adviser to many of our attorneys, staff and alumni," said Jon Ballis, chairman-elect of Kirkland's global management executive committee. "As a former practicing attorney and a diverse individual herself, Joi brings not only deep experience but also a unique perspective on D&I program efficacy, efforts and inclusiveness in the law firm environment."

The position, occupied for the previous eight-plus years by Rina Alvarez, is the most senior diversity and inclusion position at the firm. Bourgeois will work closely with firm leadership as well as the D&I committee on action items.

Joi Bourgeois of Kirkland & Ellis. (Courtesy photo)

"I hope to build on the number of incredible D&I initiatives at Kirkland to help create more women and diverse leaders," Bourgeois said in a statement.

Diversity, driven by external demand, recruiting priorities and shifting internal expectations, has long been a goal as the industry caters to clients who want their legal teams to be more reflective of who they are as companies.

More and more firms are turning to dedicated personnel to help organize and fulfill diversity goals, or making existing diversity positions more influential.

Crowell & Moring recently added a combined C-suite position with responsibilities for both recruiting and diversity, hoping that having an executive share a mandate for recruiting and diversity will create a positive synergy.

Kansas City, Missouri-based Lathrop Gage, which fared poorly on The American Lawyer's 2019 Diversity Scorecard (209th out of 225 firms measured), hired a former community relations manager for the city of Olathe, Kansas, to attempt to expedite its increase in diversity hires.

Other firms, like Holland & Knight, have hired diversity and inclusion professionals from larger firms. In that case, the Am Law 50 firm took a diversity executive from Latham & Watkins.

"We are delighted to welcome Joi to Kirkland," said Jeffrey Hammes, chairman of Kirkland's global management executive committee, in a statement. "Having worked with both individual attorneys and law firms as clients, as well as within a law firm setting, Joi will be an incredible asset as we continue to attract, recruit and promote diverse talent."

The hiring of diverse talent could be especially relevant for Kirkland, which handles a large amount of private equity and M&A work. PE firms in particular have traditionally been a homogeneous block of white men. But that is changing. As PE firms grow and attempt to become more inclusive, they can push the same mandate onto legal firms that demand greatly on their business.

Prior to joining Kirkland, Bourgeois spent a little under two years as the global head of diversity and inclusion at Orrick. The bulk of her career has been spent in consulting, where she worked for the Greiner Consulting Group for close to 17 years. There she advised individual attorneys on skills such as brand building, leadership and project management, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Bourgeois began her career as an associate at Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) and later at Richards, Spears, Kibbe and Orbe before moving out of practicing law directly and into sales, business management and consulting in the legal industry.

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