DEI Chief Roles Hard to Fill Amid Wavering Commitments, Lawsuits

Law firms are struggling to keep executive diversity, equity, and inclusion roles filled amid new challenges to hiring programs aimed at candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.

“I have watched people go from firm to firm and take their teams with them,” said Dru Levasseur, director of DEI at the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation, which hosts the annual legal-diversity Lavender Law conference. “It has been alarming to see the turnover.”

About 80% of some of the top law firms have a full-time senior DEI role, according to a Bloomberg Law survey. But firms have had trouble finding and keeping diversity leaders, in part because they haven’t developed a clear blueprint for the roles.

“There’s not an organization, especially in the world of Big Law, where we could be like ‘that firm figured it out. Let’s take their playbook and just execute,’” said Alexis Robertson, DEI director at Foley & Lardner.

The roles can read as ineffective, especially if they’re vague or not fully thought out, which diversity hawks say discourages candidates. On the job, DEI leaders face obstacles posed by strict hierarchy, lawyers short on time, and risk-averse leadership that makes it hard for them to stick around.

Adding to existing challenges is the pressure that DEI leaders face now that hard-line conservatives are targeting professional diversity programs following the Supreme Court’s recent decision to gut affirmative action in college admissions.

The founder of the organization on the winning side of that case last week sued two firms—Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster—alleging that their diversity fellowship programs discriminate against White students. The litigation comes on the heels of a letter from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning law firms that they could similarly be hauled into court.

An affirmative action protest outside the Supreme Court.

Photographer: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

“From where I’m standing, DEI is under attack,” said Levasseur, who consults on firms DEI goals. “I just think that the affirmative action cases created a lot of fear for people.”

Commitment Questions

Legal diversity professionals are concerned that the latest blows to DEI will give hesitant firms an avenue to backpedal their initiatives and make cuts to DEI budgets and roles—which are already lacking adequate support.

Many senior DEI roles at law firms continue to be informal and under-resourced, said Nikia Gray, the executive director of the National Association for Law Placement.

“Even the ones that are formalized tend to not have the authority or the resources to make change,” Gray, who previously ran Quarles & Brady’s Washington office and led recruiting for the firm, told Bloomberg Law. “At the very least, if a firm is committed to making changes in DEI then they need to understand that these positions should be valued.”

A DEI lead at a firm should have decision-making power, access to a team to help execute initiatives, and a decent budget, according to legal diversity advocates.

“If you were a professional that specializes in this area, that would make you very nervous about taking a position if you weren’t clear how committed the firm was to it and whether the firm is going to give you the authority or resources to be successful,” Gray said.

For a DEI chief officer to be successful, the firm must already have a strong appetite for progress, according to Lloyd Freeman, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s first full-time diversity & inclusion officer.

“It’s one thing to say ‘this isn’t a nice-to-have, this is a necessity,’ it’s another thing to be in a climate where you are teaching people this is why this is good,” Freeman said. “You’re now at ground zero.”

Post-Floyd Shift

Candidates hold more bargaining power over firms looking to embrace to DEI initiatives following the resurgence of social justice movements that were triggered by the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.

Sourcing qualified personnel is not typically the hurdle, according to Chantal Raymond, chief executive officer of Inclusive Legal Search.

“Finding the candidates is the easy part,” Raymond said. “It’s finding the clients [law firms] who feel so committed to this role that they’re willing to invest in it.”

Before the Floyd-inspired push for social justice, firms frequently appointed a partner to focus on DEI initiatives, on top of their billing. Many firms, like New England’s Verrill, still employ this strategy. The firm appointed its first diversity partner, Geoffry Why of the telecommunications law practice group, this month.

Scott Anderson, Verrill’s managing partner, said the firm decided to go with an internal candidate after hearing about DEI leader hiring challenges at other firms. He said the job requires a person who can get partners on board.

“It needs to be someone who has the skill of being able to kind of communicate goals and objectives to work collaboratively with partners to get them to understand why we might need to do something different,” Anderson said.

Some of the country’s largest law firms appointed a full-time DEI chief for the first time within the last year. Akerman in May hired Cassandra Caldwell, who held diversity-focused positions at Visa and General Electric. White & Case in November recruited Hedieh Fakhriyazdi from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

Buy-In at the Top

Firms tried to set aggressive DEI goals—including hiring senior DEI officials—amid the social justice uprising following Floyd’s killing, said Jon Harmon, chairman of Virginia’s McGuireWoods.

Harmon is a veteran litigator who consults organizations on their DEI efforts. He was the only Black lawyer in the top role among the country’s 100 largest law firms when he was appointed to the job in 2017. The firm, which traces its roots to the 1800s in Charlottesville, Va., has had a senior DEI official for more than a decade, according to Harmon. Atlanta partner Ken Neighbors is the current chair of the firm’s diversity committee.

Some organizations rushing to bolster their diversity programs after Floyd’s death didn’t take the time to reflect on what they wanted to achieve first, according to Harmon. He warned some that their DEI goals did not match the resources they were willing to commit, or were simply not sustainable.

Buy-in at the top is essential, Harmon said. Public backing from the firm’s other C-Suite leaders and influential partners can set the tone for the rest of the firm.

“It’s important that they have a voice and a reach to senior leadership,” Harmon said.

Being a lawyer also helps.

Robertson, Foley’s DEI leader, was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis and Seyfarth Shaw before pivoting to recruiting and legal diversity work. She said that background made it easier for her to get partners’ attention.

“I’ll sometimes joke that lawyers can’t hear me until they know that I’m also a JD,” Robertson said. “The whole way someone carries themselves changes.”