In 2005, two Asian-American lawyers, and longtime friends, called each other to discuss an issue that had been on their minds: at the top of their industry, few people looked like them. And it didn't seem likely that would change anytime soon.

Currently, around 80 percent of top legal officers are white. That number grows to 90 percent for the largest legal departments, according to data from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

But those two lawyers, Wilson Chu, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, and Don Liu, Target Corp.'s GC, are trying to move the dial in a big way. In the past decade, they've launched a number of initiatives to ensure that the future of in-house leaders is a more representative one.

“[Liu] and I decided we needed to do something to build awareness and get momentum going and all that,” Chu says. “So in 2005 we announced, with great fanfare and trepidation, the 10 by 10 initiative.”

The 10 by 10 initiative was simple but ambitious: the pair wanted to have 10 Asian-Americans in the GC role at Fortune 500 companies by 2010. It was the first of two initiatives launched by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in recent years, a spark that set off a number of other initiatives to increase representation for minority groups in the GC role.

And so far, these efforts have yielded positive results, with NAPABA's initiatives, and those of other groups, making unprecedented headway in diversifying the highest ranks of in-house law. If the initiatives, which have sprouted both from specific affinity groups and collaborations between in-house lawyers of color, continue to succeed, the law department of the future's demographics will better represent the U.S. population in a major way.

'It's All About the Pipeline'

Liu and Chu started with some calls. The pair reached out to recruiters to find out what they were looking for in GCs, and whether they'd be willing to meet with prospective Asian-American in-house leaders.

There were mentoring sessions, featuring Liu and other prominent Asian-American legal leaders, and training to develop soft skills and executive presence.

By 2008, the original goal had been reached—10 Asian-American GCs in the Fortune 500. But Liu feared the initiative was losing its momentum. He didn't want their success to be a short-term one. So he and Chu ratcheted up their goal, rebooting with a 20 by 20 initiative. By 2018, there were 23 Asian-American GCs in America's top companies.

“We're still debating internally what [the new goal] should be, but I'm saying we should have a stretch goal, that it should be 50 by 25,” Chu says. “The elite law schools are just over 10 percent Asian-American. So if the elite law schools are that high … then I have a reasonable basis to make a claim that the right number should be 10 percent [of the Fortune 500].”

The movement toward making legal departments more representative of the general population has spread beyond just Asian-Americans.

After working on his own initiative, Liu lent his expertise to the the Hispanic National Bar Association. He spoke with two members of the HNBA about 10 by 10 and 20 by 20's strategies and plans, suggesting they start a similar initiative for Latino in-house lawyers. In March, the HNBA launched PODER25, which aims to get 20 Latino GCs at Fortune 500 companies by 2025.

Currently, there are only nine Latino GCs in the Fortune 500, or 1.8 percent, while Latinos make up 18 percent of the U.S. population. Because there are so few Latino GCs at major companies, HNBA's reached out to mentors inside and outside of the Latino community. They've also established two separate tracks, GC Ready and GC Next, to help advance Latino in-house lawyers at all stages of the pipeline.

“We looked at what [20 by 20] had done, but we [also] conducted our own independent research on 'what's the secret formula to getting one of these positions,' the factors that companies are looking for when choosing a general counsel to come up with research-based strategies we could use to elevate our members, people who were ready,” says HNBA President Erica Mason. “It's about the pipeline.”

Most recently, an advisory counsel of black former and current in-house leaders launched the Black GC 2025 Initiative in May.

Like PODER25, its deadline is 2025. The initiative's goal is to increase the number of black GCs in the Fortune 1000 companies to 100. There's also a short-term goal to reach 50 black GCs at top companies, up from the 38 currently in the Fortune 1000.

If successful, 10 percent of Fortune 1000 GCs will be black, compared to just over 13 percent of the U.S. population.

“[It is] about identifying talent and making sure they're ready, and then getting them connected,” says Ernest Tuckett, former general counsel for the Americas at AkzoNobel. He co-founded the initiative alongside April Miller Boise, the senior vice president, CLO and corporate secretary at Meritor Inc.

Aim Is Clear, Work Is Collaborative

On the Black GC 2025 initiative's board sits Rick Palmore, a senior counsel at Dentons. He is also former general counsel of General Mills Inc. and the author of “A Call to Action: Diversity in the Legal Profession.” He's a longtime advocate for legal diversity, and he says the recently launched efforts to boost representation for a number of minority communities in law have caught his eye.

Palmore says that, unlike what have been at times vaguely worded efforts to increase diversity in law at some point, the three initiatives are extremely clear in their aims. They state what groups they want to see represented, what type of company's legal team they'd like to see them lead and give real deadlines.

Because each group has started its own movement, ­Palmore says, this lets the legal industry know that they're not just seeking growth in diversity of one group—there are efforts to raise representation across the board.

“The fact that these groups are being specific about categories is important because it says we want our diversity to be broad based,” Palmore says. “We don't just want African-American diversity, we don't just want Asian-American diversity, we want all of our talent to be able to thrive.”

But he also adds that there's power in the organizations working together, “The groups have more in common than they have differences, in my opinion,” says Palmore. “So the opportunity to work together is important to, I think, our reaching success overall in the profession for what we all really want, which is a diverse profession where all the best people can thrive.”

That's where the MCCA comes in. The nonprofit's president and chief executive officer, Jean Lee, was instrumental in the 10 by 10 and subsequent 20 by 20 initiatives, and has connected members of all three groups.

The MCCA has served as a place for the leaders of initiatives like these to share strategies about what works and what doesn't, like working with recruiters and generating set goals.

Chu says it has also acted as a place for in-house lawyers of color to attend seminars on executive presence, recruiting processes and other career-related skills that are useful for all legal leaders, regardless of race or ethnicity. He and Liu have spoken with representatives from other affinity bars about how they started their initiatives and achieved success.

Lee, who previously served as vice president and assistant general counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co., says she's seen the need for more diverse representation in-house in her own career, and in her latest role, speaking with prospective in-house lawyers of color. “When I go to law schools to speak, I attended one or two events where it was college students at HBCUs who were considering law school,” Lee says. “Many students raised their hands and asked, 'Why should I go to law school when I don't see people who look like me at the top?'”

Effects of the Movement

HNBA's Mason, who, in addition to her role with the group, is a partner at Constangy Brooks, Smith & Prophete, says the diversification of the legal department has effects even outside the company, including with outside counsel.

She says having more diversity in-house could translate to more diverse outside firms, as GCs who care about diversity in their own ranks are more likely to value it in the firms they hire. The HNBA has done speed networking rounds at conferences introducing Latino in-house counsel to their firm-based counterparts in an effort to promote this joint growth and strength. While PODER25 is still limited to current in-house counsel, Mason says it could expand in the future or have events with the affinity group's outside counsel members.

It's a goal shared by other affinity groups and initiatives as well. “Underrepresented people, those people tend to be more aware of the challenges in the profession, and are making their decision [for outside counsel hiring] with that filter,” Tuckett says. “So they will drive that decision to say, 'We want more people leading our matters who look like us.' We're driving the number of [diverse] GCs in the Fortune 1000 and diversity in the entire profession.”

And what about the graduates of these initiatives?

So far, 10 by 10 and 20 by 20 have produced quite a few. And, at least in the case of recently hired Jones Lang LaSalle global general counsel Alan Tse, the urge to give back and boost diversity has remained strong. Tse was involved in the initiatives' start as a mentee and mentor and, through hard work building legal skills, business skills and connections, made his way to the GC role at Petco Animal Supplies Inc., and then JLL. He continues to mentor other GC hopefuls.

“It's not lost on me that I'm here on the shoulders of a lot of great people, people I know and people I don't know,” says Tse. “It's taken a lot of mentoring to get me to this point, so I'm appreciative of that, and I try to give back every day.”

Should the initiatives meet or surpass their goals—as both 10 by 10 and 20 by 20 have—the demographic landscape of in-house leaders will better reflect the makeup of the U.S., which is currently only around 60 percent white.

If NAPABA's next goal does align with Chu's vision of 50 by 2025, the Fortune 500's legal leaders could by then be 10 percent Asian-American, and, with HNBA's goal, 4 percent Latino, double the current number of Latino GCs. The Fortune 1000 would have more than double the number of black GCs it has today, jumping from 38 to 100.

It's a success that would be won and maintained through the hard work of initiative leaders, in-house lawyers of color, allies in the legal and recruiting worlds and the graduates of these programs as they move into top GC roles. And, Palmore says, it's a change that would lead to stronger legal departments and companies as a whole.

“We as a [legal] profession are fighting the talent wars,” Palmore says. “We can't afford not to let the best talent come to the table.”