(front row)    

Rae Jean McCall

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Assn.

Maurice Watson

Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin

John Murphy, (Co-Chair/Sponsor)

Shook, Hardy & Bacon

Tina Harris, (Co-Chair/Sponsor)

Shook, Hardy & Bacon

Kimberly Jones

Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin

Sly James

Sly James Law Firm

(back row)    

Michael Williams

Lathrop & Gage

Cheryl Rose

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Assn.

Wesley Fields

Bryan Cave

Ralph Bellar

Lewis Rice & Fingersh

Kelly Brende

Swanson Midgley

Dean Bill Rich

Washburn University School of Law

Deryl Wynn

McAnany Van Cleave & Phillips

Cathy Dean

Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus

Mitch Woolery

Kutak Rock

Scott Smith

Furry & Smith

Dean Gail Agrawal

University of Kansas School of Law

Jennifer Gille Bacon

Shughart Thomson & Kilroy

Dean Ellin Suni

UMKC School of Law

Keith Cutler

Jackson County Bar Association

Debbie Brooks

UMKC School of Law

Joe Hiersteiner

Seigreid Bingham Levy Selzer & Gee

Lynda Moore

UMKC School of Law

Bob Thompson

Bryan Cave

Ed Marquette

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal

Ramon Murguia

Murguia Law Offices

Carrie English

Stinson Morrison Hecker

Joe Roper

Foland Wickens

Brian Finucane

Fisher & Phillips

Attorneys Tackle Diversity Issue Head On

Kim Jones, chair of Blackwell Sanders’ Diversity Committee, elaborated that the partners of her firm “have tried to incorporate the broadest definition of diversity that we can think of.” This includes family status, marital status, age, color, gender, sexual orientation and gender expression.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal also defines diversity quite broadly, said the firm’s Ed Marquette, who is also chair of the Kansas City Diversity Committee. He added hopefully that his firm will have succeeded in accomplishing its diversity goals when a given group is so well represented as to no longer be thought of as diverse. 

Obstacles to Achieving Diversity

As a fundamental question, the attorneys present were asked what distinctive challenges they faced in their workplace in achieving diversity. The partners at the various law firms shared a common range of concerns.

Tina Harris set the tone of the discussion. As she noted, we have “to look at ourselves very critically, look at our environment very critically and think, ‘What can we do better in order to improve diversity’?”

For Mitch Woolery with Kutak Rock, the primary challenge for his firm was “blending the various cultures.” In fact, the partners have even informally consulted with cultural anthro- pologists on various ways to improve the culture they have as a firm.

Joe Hiersteiner, managing director at Seigreid, Bingham, Levy, Selzer & Gee, expressed a concern that most smaller firms share, namely “convincing applicants from diverse back- grounds that we offer the same kind of sophisticated practice in a slightly different atmosphere and culture than some of the big firms.”

Ralph Bellar, who is the recruiting partner at Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, shared Hiersteiner’s concern, namely the difficulty for a medium-sized firm to “attract good minority candidates.”

“The competition with respect to minority candidates is especially fierce,” agreed Brian Finucane, the regional managing partner of Fisher & Phillips.

“One of our challenges,” added Pat Konopka, chair of Stinson Morrison Hecker’s diversity committee, is attra-cting candidates, who have so many choices, and trying to convince them that either our firm or the city of Kansas City is a great place to practice law.”

“Sometimes Kansas City is a hard sell,” agreed Deryl Wynn with Mc-Anany, Van Cleave & Phillips.

The Swanson Midgley Law Firm participated in the Heartland Legal Diversity Job Fair, observed managing partner Kelly Brende. She attested to the difficulty of convincing minority candidates from out of town to take a chance on Kansas City, and especially on a smaller law firm therein.

I think our challenge is what several of you have said,” noted Cathy Dean, head of the litigation department at Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus, “and that is to get a larger pool of candidates that will want to stay in KC.”