Albert F. Moreno
General Counsel
Levi Strauss & Co. has always been an innovator in the apparel industry with its popular Levi’s, Dockers, and Levi Strauss Signature brands sold in more than 110 countries. The privately held company employs approximately 8500 people worldwide, including 1,000 people in its San Francisco headquarters.
(L to R): Larry P. Tu, Dell, Inc.; Rosanna Neagle accepting award on behalf of Levi Strauss & Co.; and Veta Richardson
Albert F. Moreno, senior vice president and general counsel of Levi Strauss & Co., leads a law department of 13 attorneys worldwide. Fifty-four percent of the attorney staff are women and 46 percent are minorities. Over one-half of the senior positions in the legal division are occupied by women, people of color, and people of non-U.S. origin. This diversity translates throughout the entire division staff. In San Francisco, 46 percent of the non-attorney staff come from under-represented groups.
“None of us is nearly as smart as we think we are, and it is only with the diversity of capable individuals that you truly build an effective and capable organization. We have done that in the legal division,” says Moreno.
Diversity has always been central to Levi Strauss & Co.’s strategy. Long before it was legally mandated, the company opened integrated factories in California in the 1940s. When expanding manufacturing operations in the American south in the 1950s, Levi Strauss & Co. refused to locate new plants in towns that imposed segregation. More recently, in 1992, Levi Strauss & Co. became the first Fortune 500 company to extend full medical benefits to domestic partners of employees.
When Levi Strauss & Co. sought to form strategic partnerships with its primary law firms, it looked for minority- and women-owned firms. When working with majority firms, the general counsel works to see that business opportunities are extended to minority and female partners.
The legal department is a longtime member of the California Minority Counsel Program, and it encourages individual attorneys to participate in other minority bar associations. It is also a supporter of the Legal Aid Society, Employment Law Center.
The company’s philanthropic efforts reflect its commitment to diversity. Its foundations provide grants to address urgent local needs where employees live and work. Full-time U.S. employees receive up to five hours per month of paid time off to volunteer at charitable organizations of their choice. And in 2000, Levi Strauss & Co. inaugurated Volunteer Day, which has since been expanded to more than 40 locations internationally.
Levi Strauss & Co. has been ranked as one of “America’s 50 Best Companies for Minorities” by Fortune magazine. In 2003, it received the “Corporate Philanthropy” Award for leadership in giving and volunteering in the San Francisco area, and in 1988 it received the prestigious U.S. President’s “Ron Brown” Award for Corporate Leadership for outstanding achievements in employee and community relations.
From the November/December 2005 issue of Diversity & The Bar®