Last weekend, one Southeastern midsize law firm hosted its first event devoted to providing more opportunities to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) attorneys. Birmingham-founded Balch & Bingham's Balch BLOCC (BIPOC Lawyers Opportunities, Culture and Connection) hosted its inaugural summit at the Loews Atlanta Hotel. Fifteen attorneys from nine of the firms' 10 offices, which are in five states and Washington, D.C., attended the April 28-30 event. "It was great. Everything went off without a hitch," said Tashwanda Pinchback Dixon, Balch BLOCC's chair and a partner at Balch & Bingham's Atlanta office. "We have offices in several locations, and we felt like it was important for other lawyers of color to get together and get to know each other better so we can be a resource for one other, even though we don't live in the same cities or work in the same offices." According to Dixon, the summit was an offshoot of Balch BLOCC, an advisory group that was launched in July. "It's common knowledge [that] there's a low percentage of lawyers of color who practice in law firms," she said when asked why the group was founded. "There's two parts to this: recruiting and retention. When we look at retaining lawyers, we looked at ways to support lawyers so they would want to stay and would thrive. We wanted to build that community within the firm. "At the summit, for example, we talked about ways lawyers can be successful and also [have] resources available to help them navigate the law firm environment, because it is different than other workplaces. Also, [we let] them know about the marketing team or about the compensation process or mentoring. We wanted to give them that information and build that trust so we could be a resource for them and they could be a resource for each other." Dixon noted that she was excited about the level of participation, not only from the lawyers attending but also the others involved in the summit. "It was an important thing, [for] not just the people who attended but those who made it happen, the presenters and organizers," she said. "We even had a wellness component yesterday, on the last day, where someone came in and presented how to breathe so that when [stressful] things come up in the office, you know how to work through things, mental health-wise."