NEW ORLEANS, LA – In support of McGlinchey Stafford’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession, the firm has joined the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s Leaders at the Front program.
Leaders at the Front is meant to capture the urgency and opportunity that the racial justice movement has created over the past year. By encouraging those in leadership positions to commit themselves to change, LCLD has urged its member organizations to create actionable pledges and plans to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the legal profession. Other organizations that have made pledges through the program include Capitol One, General Motors, and Fannie Mae.
- As McGlinchey’s executive leader, Michael is personally committed to advocating for systemic changes that uncover and correct inequity. The firm as a whole also has made an organizational commitment to advancing diversity. These efforts include the following goals:
- Research and dedicate resources to sponsorship opportunities to ensure inclusion of diverse attorneys across the national platform.
- The firm will also identify and implement tools and processes to identify, hire, mentor, empower, compensate, recognize, and provide leadership opportunities for attorneys from a wide array of backgrounds, cultures, and traditions (and implement metrics to track the success of those tools and processes). Some of this work is underway and we will continue to formalize and program these initiatives.
- Challenge the firm to “think bigger” about the broad umbrella of inequity based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical, mental, and intellectual disabilities, and to be intentional in the use of firm language and programming to honor those experiences.
- Increase firm resources devoted to DEI programming, and to efforts that help us recognize and minimize implicit bias. Through the DEI Committee, firm leadership, and office management, the firm will make educational and community building resources accessible across a variety of platforms and disciplines, to encourage firm employees to engage in a personally meaningful way with these resources.
- Require Practice Group Leaders to prepare DEI action plans with goals to increase diversity in their talent acquisition, professional development, promotion, composition of client teams, and the composition of business development teams, and to report on their progress at regular intervals.
- Elevate the DEI Committee’s activities and promote the importance of a vibrant, active committee. The firm will support its members in advocating for a better firm and profession, and will give special consideration to service on the DEI Committee when considering candidates for leadership positions.
