Our ongoing Hot Topic page rounds up the latest stories about efforts to improve diversity in the legal profession, plus the specific challenges and milestones of that journey.
“First of all, it’s thinking outside of the box a little, and I don’t know that the legal profession is very forward thinking,” Jackson said. “Secondly, I don’t know how difficult it is to find a team of people like that � I’m hearing that it’s difficult for law firms to get one or two people a year.”
Even Mintz’s Kiser acknowledges that it’s not something the firm can necessarily replicate in other locations, like Silicon Valley or San Diego � not that she wouldn’t welcome the opportunity.
“Would we do it in the exactly the same way? If the opportunity presented itself, sure,” she said.
Casellas said that one of the biggest challenges in doing something like this is melding the different parts into one firm.
“The key to making this work is not unlike bringing any laterals into the firm � and that is to have a strong and robust integration program,” he said.
So far, Casellas said, it has worked out well for the firm � not only in terms of diversity, but financially, as more and more clients demand diverse teams of lawyers. Aside from the run-of-the-mill labor and employment work, the corporate diversity risk management group, as it is called, advises on companies’ diversity efforts “identifying gaps between policy and practice,” he said.
Zusha Elinson is a reporter for The Recorder, which publishes Diversity. He can be reached at [email protected].
