For Michael Williams, chair of the Diversity Committee at Lathrop & Gage, the challenge is not just recruiting likely candidates, but retaining them, integrating them into the firm’s culture, and ideally promoting them to partner and chairs of committees.
Maurice Watson, a partner at Black-well Sanders Peper Martin, offered another ingredient for a successful culture. “In the absence of a critical mass of successful and happy minori-ties at your firm,” he noted, “it is very difficult to attract the best talent.”
“There needs to be a commitment to mentor minority lawyers in [large] firms,” elaborated Ramon Murguia of the Murguia Law Office, “because otherwise it won’t work out.”
“Part of [the retention process],” affirmed Wesley Fields with Bryan Cave, “is the mentoring of diverse lawyers once they have come to Bryan Cave, and ensuring that there is opportunity and there is success for them there.”
As Bob Thompson, the managing partner at Bryan Cave pointed out, more than 30 percent of its incoming class of associates is diverse. “Our challenge now,” he added, “is continuing to build on that success and transition and promote them through the partnership and through the firm.”
Joe Roper, managing partner at Foland, Wickens, Eisfelder, Roper & Hofer, concurred was retention is difficult. “The competition does not end once [diverse candidates] are hired.”
“The large firms from Kansas City tend to look to us as their training ground for their employees,” added Scott Smith, the managing partner of Furry & Smith, a smaller litigation firm from eastern Jackson County.
Even the large firms face competition, observed Carrie English, director of recruiting and professional devel-opment at Stinson Morrison Hecker. This makes “retaining the great talent that we have” all the more difficult.
Jennifer Bacon, the diversity partner at Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, argued for a larger cultural perspective on div-ersity. As she sees it, “There is still a problem with getting everybody’s minds wrapped around this issue.” As much as attorneys may think it a desirable goal, they are used to interacting with people in certain ways that makes it a little difficult for diverse candidates to succeed.
Kim Jones agreed with Bacon that the larger challenge “is working within your firm to change the culture and embracing this notion of diversity.”
“We need to move beyond the status quo,” said Ed Marquette. “That takes an every day, consistent, constant effort.”
“You need buy-in throughout the entire firm,” summed up John Murphy. One of the reasons Murphy dislikes committees is that they tend to compartmentalize problems. “Diversity isn’t a committee issue. This is a firm issue. It’s a legal community issue. It’s a city environment issue. We have to recognize that to really make it work.”
The Advancement of Women
John Murphy commented on a perceived “lack of advancement of women through partnership ranks.” He queried those in attendance as to whether that was a valid perception.
Gail Agrawal, the dean of the University of Kansas School of Law, did not question the perception, but she was reluctant to fault the law firms. She watches each year as some of her most talented young women lawyers “leave the practice in droves.”
“They tell me it is inconsistent with other aspects of their life, families and children and those kinds of responsibilities,” Agrawal noted.
“I think that we do have a problem,” countered Cathy Dean in reference to law firm opportunities. Although she acknowledged that women choose not to practice for a variety of reasons, she still believes that women are underrepresented on managing committees and other positions of responsibility.
“The big, broader problem,” said Pat Konopka, “is with the profession. We need to make fundamental changes in order to keep women in the profession.” She argued that younger attorneys looking for a “balanced life”—male
or female—are not likely to find it in a profession driven by billable hours.
“What are firms doing in regards to work-life balance?” asked Tina Harris.
Shughart Thomson & Kilroy has finally adopted the concept of part-time partnerships, observed Jennifer Bacon. She added, though, that it was still in the experimental stages. “If everybody decides to do it, I think it will be an economic disaster.”
(...continued)