Nearly all law firms today understand the need for their organizations to have a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and to understand the needs of marginalized identities. Put simply, firms want to recognize and embrace underrepresented members of their firms and ensure their voices are heard.

While this is a noble and necessary objective, the organizational structure of most law firms makes this goal difficult to accomplish. Law firms with an active commitment to DEI most often have a single person in charge of those efforts, often called the diversity chair or the chief diversity officer or, for purposes of this article, the DEI leader. This is absolutely necessary from an organizational standpoint, but from the perspective of equity and inclusion, it can be a limiting structure.