Companies Push Diversity Goals for Outside Law Firms

• Companies like Starbucks use diversity as criteria to hire outside firms • Women filling role of legal services buyer

Law firms that want corporate business have an incentive to focus on their employee diversity: pleasing clients that demand it.

The legal departments at companies such as Starbucks and Northwestern Mutual are looking at diversity and inclusion within their own organizations and the outside counsel they hire. Their priorities could shift an industry that is still largely male and white.

Women are now the biggest buyers of legal services through the growing prominence of legal operations executives, said Connie Brenton, ...