Diversity

Wal-Mart Will Use Software to Monitor Diversity of Outside Counsel

Wal-Mart has ditched four law firms for lacking commitment to diversity and will be using technology to keep an eye on the hundreds of other firms that do legal work for the retailer. Miguel Rivera, Wal-Mart’s associate general counsel for outside counsel management, told a Florida Bar diversity symposium last…

Jul 11, 2008 10:35 AM CDT

Munger Tolles Tops Am Law A-List

The American Lawyer has placed Munger, Tolles & Olson at the top of its A-List, replacing Debevoise & Plimpton, which fell to fifth place. The top 20 A-List (reg. req.) ranks firms on the basis of four categories: revenue per lawyer, pro bono hours, associate satisfaction and diversity representation. Debevoise…

Jul 1, 2008 11:35 AM CDT

Lawyers in Love Celebrate Anniversaries at Home—and at Work

Grant and Sandy Liser are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary this month. But the two Texas lawyers are achieving a memorable milestone as partners at the office this year, too: a decade together at the same law firm, practicing together as trial attorneys in a 21-lawyer defense firm. Although their…

Jun 23, 2008 5:52 PM CDT

Judge Bernice Donald Wins Liberty Award from ABA’s TIPS Section

A federal district court judge in Tennessee has been named a recipient of an inaugural ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Liberty Achievement Award. Judge Bernice Donald is being honored for actively promoting diversity within the legal community, according to the Memphis Business Journal and an ABA press release.…

Jun 13, 2008 11:30 PM CDT

Students at CLEO Boot Camp Debate ‘Seinfeld’ Hypothetical

Forty-four minority students attending a law school boot camp hosted by the Council on Legal Education Opportunity got a quick introduction to legal debate recently, courtesy of the television show Seinfeld. The Daily Journal (sub. req.) summarizes the legal issue presented by the episode this way: Is a bowl of…

Jun 13, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

New Steptoe & Johnson Diversity Partner Schmoozes Undecided Summers

Daryl “Sandy” Chamblee, the newly appointed diversity partner at Steptoe & Johnson, recently did a little schmoozing to help the law firm attract female summer associates. Chamblee, an African American, was recently appointed the first-ever diversity partner at the law firm. She told The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times…

Jun 13, 2008 3:28 PM CDT

Weil Gotshal Holds Networking Event at Henri Bendel

Lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges combined shopping and networking last week during a private shopping party with clients and friends at upscale clothing store Henri Bendel in New York. Both the store and the law firm pledged to donate 10 percent of the evening’s proceedings to the Breast Cancer…

Jun 10, 2008 5:23 PM CDT

Ballpark Protest of Lesbian Kiss Sparks Discussion of Discrimination Issue

Accounts differ about exactly what happened. But a woman says she was asked by an usher to stop kissing her female date at a recent Seattle Mariners baseball game after another fan complained the public display of affection wasn’t suitable for children, even though similar behavior by opposite-sex couples apparently…

Jun 5, 2008 9:41 PM CDT

New NLJ List: 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers

Winnowing through an avalanche of nominations to determine the 50 minority lawyers who have had the most influence on the profession during the past five years was no easy task, due to the multitude of candidates. But a National Law Journal team has done so, supplementing the information provided with…

Jun 2, 2008 9:20 PM CDT

Yale Affirmative Action Didn’t Hurt Clarence Thomas, Classmates Say

Although a Yale Law School diploma didn’t prevent Clarence Thomas from getting a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, it didn’t help him much either, he has said. In particular, the African-American justice has blamed Yale’s affirmative action program for stigmatizing black graduates, and contends his law degree is…

Jun 2, 2008 6:59 PM CDT

Law Firm Diversity Consultant Tells Employees: Consider If You Are Valued

A lawyer turned diversity consultant has advised minority employees who feel underappreciated to get smart, rather than getting mad, by leaving for better opportunities. Natalie Holder-Winfield, who wrote Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, tells the New York Times the important question for employees to consider is how much they…

May 30, 2008 4:59 PM CDT

Want More Women Partners? Then Name Them, Blogger Tells Firms

As he listened recently to yet another panel of managing partners lament the lack of women in the pipeline to promote to partner in their law firms, a blogger had an epiphany. If they want more women partners, they should make more women partners, writes Aric Press, the editorial director…

May 27, 2008 6:33 PM CDT

Gay BigLaw Partner: Coming Out Helped My Career

Coming out of the closet about his sexual orientation has helped his career, says a London partner at one of the world’s biggest and best-known law firms. Stephen Shea, a tax partner at Clifford Chance, says he is more relaxed with colleagues and clients and willing to take on new…

May 27, 2008 2:43 PM CDT

Former Child Actor, Now Blind, Will Begin Stint as O’Connor Law Clerk

A former child actor who played the nerdy Weasel on the TV show Saved By the Bell: The New Class will become a U.S. Supreme Court clerk this July for retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Actor-turned-lawyer Isaac Lidsky will be the first blind clerk at the Supreme Court, Legal Times…

May 27, 2008 2:35 PM CDT

UK Survey Finds Male Lawyers Earn $38K More than Females

Male lawyers in the United Kingdom make about $38,000 more a year on average than female lawyers. The median annual pay for male solicitors in private practice is 60,000 pounds (about $119,000) while median pay for females is 41,000 pounds (about $81,000), a 32 percent difference, Bloomberg reports. When hours,…

May 23, 2008 11:11 AM CDT