Creating Pathways to Diversity Research Report

Introduction

The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) was founded in 1997 to advocate for the expanded hiring, promotion and retention of minority attorneys in legal departments and the law firms that serve them. MCCA’s efforts focus on the research, collection and dissemination of information related to the status of diversity in the legal profession and the use of the information as tools to achieve the association’s mission. Since its inception, MCCA has conducted and distributed a number of studies examining the state of diversity in corporate law departments.

The latest research study, “Creating Pathways to Diversity,” is a critical step toward moving the legal profession to a higher state of awareness and readiness on the issue of diversity.

The objectives of the study were to:

1) qualify and illuminate the best practices for the design and implementation of diversity initiatives in law departments; and
2) outline a strategy, programs and metrics that law departments can use to increase the recruitment, retention and promotion of minority and women attorneys.

This report is the first phase of a planned three-year project. The three phases are indicated below:

• Year 1: Gather baseline information on best practices in corporate law departments to begin developing measurement criteria or metrics for those efforts.
• Year 2: Develop standard metrics used to evaluate the results.
• Year 3: Apply the metrics developed in Year 2 to conduct an evaluation of how law departments are performing against these metrics.

In addition to this “Pathways” report, MCCA has created a Diversity Best Practices Workbook to provide law departments with a comprehensive collection of “first draft” action plans for more than 25 possible diversity initiatives. A law department can select and modify these “first draft” plans to fit its needs and circumstances. (For specific information on the Workbook, contact MCCA.)