| Diversity and Inclusion at Debevoise |
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We are dedicated to attracting, retaining and promoting lawyers and administrative staff of diverse backgrounds as the surest way to build the strongest possible firm. To ensure continuing focus on that commitment, we have an active and dynamic Diversity Committee that addresses diversity-related challenges in three general areas: mentoring, work opportunity and environment, education and communication.
In addition to the Diversity Committee, Debevoise has a full-time Diversity Manager who coordinates diversity initiatives with the Diversity Committee, the Management Committee and various other constituencies in the firm. The Diversity Manager acts as a resource for all lawyers and staff with respect to diversity.
The Diversity Committee, co-chaired by partners Ezra Borut and Jim Johnson and comprising partners, counsel, associates and administrative professionals, meets quarterly and develops and implements specific programs to further its objectives.
These objectives include:
- Improving the experience of all lawyers at the firm.
- Increasing the diversity of our community at all levels, including the partnership.
- Fostering an environment of greater inclusion and better communication that benefits all Debevoise lawyers.
- Working to become not just “one of the best,” but a leader in law firm diversity.
In furtherance of these objectives, the Diversity Committee strives to promote awareness, provide education and encourage open and ongoing discussions about diversity issues throughout the firm. Specific initiatives include:
- Empowering formal affinity groups to strengthen the support systems and sense of community among different groups and increase the substantive training opportunities for associates of diverse backgrounds.
- Actively involving affinity groups in the recruiting process, including reaching out to offerees, strengthening relationships with external pipeline programs to increase the pipeline of candidates, hosting recruiting events for candidates of diverse backgrounds and acting as contacts throughout the recruiting process and as advisors for summer associates of diverse backgrounds.
- Sponsoring diversity-related presentations and professional development programs for all lawyers.
- Organizing diversity training by outside diversity consultants for partners, counsel, associates and administrative staff.
- Measuring our efforts on a regular basis through internal analysis and third-party surveys of our lawyer population.
- Reviewing best practices of other law firms as well as corporations with market-leading diversity programs.
- Participating actively in outside organizations that promote diversity.
Debevoise is committed to creating a diverse workforce for the benefit of our clients, the wider community and, most importantly, for ourselves, because we believe a diverse workforce means a stronger and more talented firm.
Diversity Statement
One of the greatest strengths of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is its community. The fundamental values of the firm articulate the importance of “cohesiveness and collegiality within the firm, founded in the character of those we select as partners, counsel, associates and staff and in fundamental principles of fairness and cooperation” with “an emphasis on the success of the firm as a whole.”
Debevoise is committed to creating a work environment that values each individual’s contributions to our community. We recognize that we must work together every day to respect the different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences of people at the firm and to support our colleagues so they have the ability to develop to their full potential. These values are the foundation of our firm and strengthen our ability to work together as a team so that we can provide our clients with the best legal services available.
Debevoise is committed to promoting the diversity of our community. This commitment stems naturally from the values that shape our firm. To continue to flourish, our firm will strive to recruit and develop the finest talent from all backgrounds and beliefs. Our ability to respond to the needs of our clients, in an increasingly open and global environment, requires that the members of our community have a broad range of skills and experiences. The firm’s commitment to diversity furthers these goals.
In the News
Partner Rick Evans is among the founding board members of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, an organization of chief legal officers and law firm managing partners dedicated to using all means at their disposal to create a truly diverse legal profession.
Partner Lorna G. Schofield was named to the 50 most influential lawyers in America list, compiled by The National Law Journal. On August 1, 2009, she became the first Asian-American woman to chair the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. She became Debevoise’s first woman of color partner in 1991.
Debevoise is a partnering sponsor of Catalyst’s study “Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms.” Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business.
By the numbers
51% of the associates hired into the firm’s New York office over the past five years have been women. As of June 2011, 45% of the firm’s associates are women.
26% of the associates hired into the firm’s New York office over the past five years have self-identified as persons of color. As of June 2011, 19% of the firm’s associates self-identify as persons of color.
Of the 15 partners Debevoise made from 2008 to 2011, nine, or 60%, are women.
Debevoise was once again named to The American Lawyer’s A-List every year since its inception in 2003.
The A-List is based in part on diversity.
Debevoise achieved a top rating of 100 in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2010 Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey. The index rates businesses on diversity and inclusion, training, health care and domestic partnership benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, as well as their relations with the GLBT community, consumers and investors.
Working Mother magazine named Debevoise among the 50 best law firms for women for each of the three years of the survey (2007, 2008 and 2009).
In 2010, the Vault Top 100 Law Firm Survey ranked Debevoise & Plimpton #9 for Overall Diversity.
In 2011, Multicultural Law Magazine ranked Debevoise in its Annual Top 100 Firms for Diversity. Debevoise ranked 8th nationwide in overall diversity. In addition, the firm ranked 4th this year in the Top 100 Law Firms for Women, 23rd of the Top 25 Law Firms for Hispanics and 12th of the Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans.
Leadership Inside and Out
Women partners and partner members of minority groups play a critical role in the leadership of the firm. Mary Jo White is the Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department, and Mary Beth Hogan is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Becky Silberstein and Joe Hamid are Co-Chairs of the Associate Liaison Committee and Jim Johnson is Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee. Ben Lim is head of the Derivatives Practice, and Ivan Mattei co-heads the Project Finance Practice. Franci Blassberg and Peggy Davenport are the Co-Chairs of the Corporate Department’s Private Equity Group. Sarah Fitts is Co-Chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Group.
In leadership of the profession outside the firm, Barbara Paul Robinson was the first woman President of the New York City Bar Association (1994-96). She is currently a member of the DirectWomen Institute, a joint venture of the ABA and Catalyst formed to train women lawyers to become directors of public companies. Lorna G. Schofield just concluded her term as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. Mary Beth Hogan is a board member of Catalyst, a research and advisory organization that promotes women’s career advancement and leadership. Sarah Fitts is Chair of the Asian Affairs Committee of New York City Bar Association.
Debevoise is an active participant in the Diversity Committee of the New York City Bar Association and is a signatory of the City Bar’s three diversity statements:
- The 1991 Statement of Goals of New York Law Firms and Corporate Legal Departments for Increasing Minority Representation and Retention.
- The 1998 Restatement and Reaffirmation of Goals for the hiring, retention and promotion of attorneys of color and the retention and promotion of women.
- The 2003 Statement of Diversity. Debevoise was one of the first firms to sign onto the statement.
Diversity-related Pro Bono
Debevoise lawyers support diversity in their pro bono commitments, including the following recent or current representations:
- Assisting the Social and Economic Rights Action Center, a Nigerian NGO, in representing a class of citizens of Lagos, Nigeria who were forcibly evicted from their homes in a large slum community when the government demolished it before the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. After 18 years of litigation, the evictees have yet to receive any redress and have decided to take their case to the African Commission.
- Helping Haitian nationals residing in the U.S. to apply for Temporary Protected Status following the January 2010 earthquake through clinics set up by the Legal Aid Society, The City Bar Justice Center and New York Legal Assistance Group.
- Drafting an amicus brief to the West Virginia Supreme Court for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund challenging a trial court’s ruling against a gay couple seeking to adopt the foster child they had been raising since birth.
- Achieving a significant settlement in one of the firm’s larger and longest lasting civil rights pro bono matters. In E.E.O.C., et al. v. Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Int’l Assoc., Debevoise worked with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the State of New York and City of New York, to challenge the discriminatory practices of a labor union on behalf of a class of the union’s black and Hispanic members.
- Helping Holocaust survivors apply for benefits under the German Ghetto Work Payment Program through a Bet Tzedek clinic.
- Assisting low-income transgender individuals with their legal name change process through the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund Name Change Project.
- Obtaining political asylum for clients from all over the world, including Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and the People’s Republic of China, among many other countries through Human Rights First and City Bar Refugee Assistance Project, and clients persecuted in their home country based on their sexual orientation, transgender identity or HIV status through Immigration Equality.
- Working on custody, child support, matrimonial and family offense cases for low-income female survivors of domestic violence through inMotion and Sanctuary for Families.
- Assisting the Muslim Women’s Collective, a group of 12 voluntary and community organizations in the London borough of Tower Hamlets with forming a legal entity.
- Assisting a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging mental and physical wellness within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community through participation in the sport of rock climbing in becoming incorporated and obtaining tax-exempt status.
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