(Left to right) Tina Shah Paikeday, global D&I adviser services practice leader, Russell Reynolds Associates; Willie Hernandez, vice president, deputy general counsel at Hewlett Packard; Michael Tang, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Agilent Technologies; Jennifer Lagunas, vice president of corporate legal, governance, and operations and assistant corporate secretary at AbbVie Inc.; Damien Atkins, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at The Hershey Co.; and Cynthia Dow, managing director, global legal, practice leader at Russell Reynolds Associates, at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference in New York on Tuesday. Photo: Daniel Clark/ALM

Those leading legal departments have the opportunity to play a big role in championing diverse candidates by soliciting feedback and showing them they belong, a panel at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's 2019 Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference in New York said Tuesday.

Willie Hernandez, vice president, deputy general counsel at Hewlett Packard, said as a young in-house attorney at IBM he was sent to South Carolina to help close a transaction when his managers were told he was not the right attorney to send. He said he was not sure if it had to do with his age or race.

"My management said, 'He is your lawyer for this deal,'" Hernandez said. "I didn't have to go down there wondering if I belonged in that room."

Hernandez said because his managers had faith in him, he was able to focus on the deal and show his worth, which set him up for promotions and greater responsibilities in the future.

"We as leaders create the space for inclusion," Hernandez said. "It didn't take much, but he created that space."

Michael Tang, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Agilent Technologies Inc., told the group he introduces his attorneys to leaders outside of the legal department.

A general counsel or chief legal officer's role in fostering a welcoming work environment is critical, said Damien Atkins, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at The Hershey Co.

"Everything you do or say and every person you interact with and how you interact with that person sends a message," Atkins said.

It is important to meet with everyone in the legal department, Atkins added, to develop feedback and find ways to create a more inclusive environment. That means having discussions with more than just attorneys.

"I get some of the best advice from folks who are paralegals and legal assistants," Atkins said. "They are the ones that actually know what is going on in the organization."

Jennifer Lagunas, vice president of corporate legal, governance, and operations and assistant corporate secretary at AbbVie Inc., said besides the "moral imperative" to be more open and inclusive, there are also business reasons that legal leaders should be implementing diversity and inclusion practices.

She said she meets with many of AbbVie's institutional investors, and each one wants to know what diversity and inclusion at the company looks like.

"There is a business case, and I think we all see it, where anti-group think is what it's going to take to get better results," Lagunas said. "I point to the academic research that the investors at my company point to. It's just that it creates better outcomes."