Glenn West,
Managing Partner, Dallas, Tex., office
Weil Gotshal & Manges, LLP
With more than 1,200 lawyers across the United States, Europe, and Asia, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, serves successful companies around the world in their high-stakes matters and transactions.
Nineteen percent of the attorneys and nearly 13.5 percent of the partners in the south/southwest offices are minorities. More than 40 percent of the attorneys and 22 percent of the partners in the firm’s south/southwest offices are women.
“Our commitment to diversity has been long-term and sustained. We are constantly looking for better ways to enhance and celebrate our diversity in all its forms. By refusing to view diversity in only one facet, we have increased our diversity in all facets,” says Glenn D. West, managing partner of the Dallas office.
Cathy Lamboley, General Counsel, Shell Oil Company (ret), and Yvette Ostolaza, Hiring Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
In 1992, Weil Gotshal was one of the first major firms to institute a firm-wide diversity training program and a formal diversity policy. Two goals of this training program are to develop a better understanding of what constitutes diversity and to learn how diversity matters in the workplace. The firm takes its commitment to training seriously. Since 2004, it has spent more than 10,000 hours on diversity training.
Weil Gotshal seeks out diverse attorneys, recruiting at more than 40 law schools, and it is serious about advancing a diverse group of attorneys. All of the new partners and counsel in the Texas offices effective January 1, 2007, were women. To retain its talent, Weil Gotshal has a variety of programs including five active affinity groups, a strong mentoring program, and “Flex-Time Partner,” a new partnership category that is available to both men and women entering the partnership.
Weil Gotshal continually experiments with new programs, piloting each program in one office and learning what works and what needs to be adapted from office to office. For example, the firm is about to pilot a program in its Dallas office on religious diversity and how faith affects work. After evaluating the rollout, the firm will customize the program for other regions.
Through its Supplier Diversity Program, the firm establishes business partnerships with minority- and women-owned businesses to provide everything from catering services to office supplies to executive search services. The firm has committed 8 percent of its annual spending with external suppliers to women- and minority-owned vendors.
Weil Gotshal was named #2 on The American Lawyer’s 2007 A-List. The firm was ranked third in the 2006 “Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity” list published by MultiCultural Law magazine, and in the Top 25 and Top 50 for most diversity categories. It was also highly rated by the Vault Guide in several of the publication’s “Quality of Life” sections, including #8 for Formal Training and #20 for Pro Bono.
From the November/December 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®