Foley is fully invested in establishing an environment that attracts and sustains diversity of gender, ethnicity, and religion, and is supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) attorneys.
Because a strong and effective diversity program is one of the highest priorities of our firm, our Chairman and CEO named a Chief Diversity Partner to help further our efforts and our success. Our Chief Diversity Partner, Maureen McGinnity, personifies the importance we place on our diversity initiative. Maureen brings the highest level of respect and authority to our diversity initiative, and will serve as a catalyst for and a leader in improving our diversity.
Maureen, in conjunction with our firm's management, has defined our diversity mission as follows:
To be the law firm that is open and inclusive to, provides mentoring and training opportunities for, and maintains a barrier-free workplace that supports the bias-free promotion of all individuals.
Through our Diversity Initiative, and the direct support of the highest levels of our firm, we have established policies and procedures to help us realize our mission. For example, contributing to a diverse workforce in a meaningful way is an important element of our partner compensation program.
Foley's success has been based upon two fundamental commitments — first to our clients, to whom we provide effective, timely, and creative legal counsel. Second, to our attorneys and staff, for whom we created an environment that embraces and promotes inclusiveness and mutual respect.
We have worked very hard to lay the foundation for our commitment to diversity. One of the key ingredients in our ongoing effort is the work accomplished by our Diversity Committee. The committee comprises individuals who represent a cross-section of offices and practices and includes a diverse group of partners, associates, and professional staff. The Firm's Diversity Committee, chaired by the Chief Diversity Partner, meets regularly and assists with the development and strategic direction of the program. In order to achieve maximum impact, and as a means of moving programs and initiatives forward, members of the committee also participate on working subcommittees focusing on issues such as flexible schedules, recruiting, professional development, marketing/internal communications, and assignment management.
We also have a Diversity Business Department within the firm, with its own budget, resources, and dedicated staff. This department, headed by the firm's Director of Diversity, provides the infrastructure and focus necessary to support both our growing internal and external diversity efforts. The Director of Diversity works closely with the Chief Diversity Partner, Diversity Committee, and the Affinity Groups assisting in the advancement of the program's vision and strategy through idea generation and program execution. The Director of Diversity helps to provide a real and consistent focus on the firm's diversity efforts. Our Director of Diversity also provides coaching and counseling to women and ethnically diverse attorneys throughout the firm on strategies and opportunities for internal advancement and external relationship building. In addition, both the firm's Chief Diversity Partner and Director of Diversity conduct personal one-on-one interviews that provide women and ethnically diverse attorneys a comfortable and confidential setting to share their diversity related concerns and interests. These interviews provide a wealth of knowledge and help to shape the firm's diversity efforts.
Recognizing that diversity is not a monolith and that diverse groups have diverse needs, we support various Affinity Groups throughout the firm. The main intent of these groups is to create an open forum for idea exchange and peer support and to serve as a vehicle for communication with firm leadership. The current Affinity Groups include: Women's Network Steering Committee, Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic-American, Gay and Lesbian, Flexible Schedule Attorneys, and Working Parent (San Francisco pilot group). These groups are encouraged at the national level but are ultimately sustained by the members themselves.
It also is the explicit objective of Foley to promote and to invite to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the firm's criteria for partnership such that, over time, the number of diverse partners will correspond more closely to the percentage of diverse attorneys hired by the firm. Our efforts are beginning to garner recognition for the firm. In December 2005, California Lawyer magazine named Foley as the top firm with the most female partners practicing in California. Foley was honored in 2005 as one of the top signatories to the Bar Association of San Francisco's No Glass Ceiling Initiative. The goal of the initiative was to have law firms aim to employ at least 25 percent women partners and 25 percent women in management positions by January 1, 2005. Foley was recognized for exceeding these goals, employing 41 percent female partners and 50 percent management in our San Francisco office. In addition, 50 percent of the San Francisco associates promoted to partner since 2002 have been female.
To the extent Foley engages in lateral hiring to meet its need for specialized, experienced attorneys, the firm is likewise committed to increasing the pool of diverse attorney applicants who meet the firm's lateral hiring criteria. We do so by:
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Communicating with law school placement administrators and faculty members for referrals
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Requesting professional recruiters, when used, to include diverse candidates in their searches
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Asking targeted bar associations for referrals
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Asking diverse partners of other law firms for referrals
We also utilize hiring criteria that go beyond traditional law school indices. Our criteria take into account other individual qualities indicative of an ability to succeed at our firm, including career objectives, experience, and special skills as well as superior character, talent, and the capacity for growth.
Foley also looks to increase ethnic diversity through our associate and summer associate classes. To achieve this goal, our firm:
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Identifies and actively recruits ethnically diverse students through placement administrators, faculty members, former summer associates, and minority law student organizations
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Attends minority job fairs, receptions, and forums
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Establishes and cultivates ties with the minority professional communities in the cities in which our offices are located
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Participates in minority law student hiring programs sponsored by
state bars
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Works to include ethnically diverse students in the firm's summer associate program
We also are firmly committed to ensuring that assignments are fair and appropriate for diverse attorneys based upon current roles and responsibilities. We are dedicated to providing our diverse attorneys with assignments that enhance their personal and professional growth and provide them with opportunities for success and advancement. To this end, we strive to create a work environment that is open and supportive, specifically by providing:
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Strategic assignments that result in enhanced visibility and enhanced development opportunities
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Formalized training, mentoring, guidance, and feedback to ensure growth and success
In addition, the firm's Chief Diversity Partner reviews staffing of all the firm's client matters in an effort to further improve the diversity of our teams and, ultimately, the service to our clients.
The firm further recognizes that flexibility in scheduling is necessary and desirable to permit attorneys to respond to certain demands in their personal lives. It is the policy of Foley to make alternative work schedule arrangements reasonably available to attorneys, as requested, for the purpose of meeting their needs for child or elder care. Although it is the general policy of the firm to recruit and hire attorneys who practice law on a full-time basis, the firm believes that the availability of such flexible arrangements will benefit both the firm and its clients by facilitating the recruitment of new attorneys and the retention of experienced attorneys. The object of this policy is to strike a fair balance between the business and economic needs of the firm, the demands and expectations of our clients, the impact on other attorneys in the organization, and the needs and goals of the attorney requesting the flexible arrangement.
Foley is taking concrete action to ensure diversity within our firm and profession, and our efforts continue to be recognized. In 2006, Foley was presented with the prestigious Drucilla Stender Ramey Award by the California Minority Counsel Program (CMCP) in recognition of our strong and ongoing commitment to diversity. Also in 2006, we were awarded the Entrepreneurial Star Award by Business Women's Network and Diversity Best Practices for our demonstrated and sustained commitment to advancing the role of women and diverse individuals in the workplace as well as in the business and civic communities. In 2000, Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) presented Foley's Chicago office with its Sager Award, which recognizes law firms that have demonstrated sustained commitment to improving the hiring, retention, and promotion of minority attorneys. We also have established internal programs focused on achieving an appropriate representation of our most talented diverse attorneys at all levels of our firm. (We continue to participate in and form strategic alliances with organizations dedicated to the advancement of diversity in the legal profession.) We are extremely proud of the such recognition as that which Partner Sharon Barner received when she was featured in the November 2003 issue of Black Enterprise magazine, named as one of “America's Top Black Lawyers.”
The firm also sponsors and participates in various MCCA conferences, including the annual CLE Expo Conference and their “Employer of Choice” regional diversity dinners held throughout the year.
We are actively involved with various diversity-related community and civic organizations and programs on a local, regional, and national level. Our affiliations include the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, Boardroom Bound, National Association of Women Business Owners, Equality California, Black Star Project, Cristo Ray Corporate Internship Program, HotHouse/The Center for International Performance & Exhibition, Institute for Diversity Education and Leadership (IDEAL), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and the Milwaukee Urban League amongst others.
