Sharon Barner is the top lawyer at Cummins Inc., a global Fortune 500 manufacturing corporation with more than $23 billion in annual revenue and nearly 60,000 employees. 

She has served as U.S. deputy undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and as deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and was a Big Law partner at Foley & Lardner. 

She also is Black. And a mother. 

And that's how she introduced herself in a statement on racial injustice that she released June 19.

"We see our sons and daughters in George Floyd, Dreasjon Reed, Breonna Taylor and so many others. On the other side of our sorrow, anger and despair, we dig deep to unleash our unrelenting commitment to fight injustice, tell our stories and build allies," Barner wrote.

"I know it's not fair. I know we are tired. But we cannot give up. Our lives and our children's lives depend on us. In the spirit of our ancestors, we must be undaunted and undeterred in our efforts to undo systemic racism," she concluded. 

Barner discussed her decision to speak out in an email exchange Thursday with Corporate Counsel. She is among a growing number of in-house leaders, corporate executives and law partners who have issued public statements about systemic racism. 

Corporate Counsel: To what extent do you think more in-house leaders should be speaking out at this moment in time?

Sharon Barner: From the onset of our country, lawyers have been some of the principal architects of the Constitution and the laws that give it life. As lawyers, we are officers of the court and guardians of justice and fairness. This is as true for in-house counsel as it is for outside counsel. This means that as attorneys, we are uniquely positioned to serve during this pivotal moment. I have encouraged my team at Cummins to engage with the community as we work to set up new processes and norms that attempt to eliminate bias and encourage equality. Our institutions could use our advocacy and perspective.

CC: Did you hesitate before deciding to issue a statement on systemic racism? 

SB: No, I did not hesitate. We are committed to speaking up and speaking out and using our voice as a company, and as individuals.

CC: In your view, what role should in-house leaders play in being catalysts for systemic change?

SB: We can create systemic change by ensuring that leadership and the teams we lead are representative of the diversity that exists in the U.S. We hire from diverse panels and have established excellent diversity among our leadership and functional teams.

We work with our outside firms to ensure diverse lawyers are part of their teams and in many cases are the relationship partners on our work. We review and evaluate the number of hours diverse attorneys spend on our work, ensure they get good, challenging work across our range of legal areas, and also give them visibility to our in-house counsel.

We are also using our skills and talents across the globe to help protesters know their rights, and we are working on policing issues and ways we can influence systemic and holistic change.

CC: Describe the feedback that you have received so far on your statement.

SB: The feedback has been largely positive, but it's important we are all questioning and thinking critically right now. We have to walk the walk just like we talk the talk.

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