Baker Botts: Collaboration is Key to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
At Baker Botts, our diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives represent a commitment to ourselves, our clients, and our communities to do the hard work necessary to ensure everyone has a seat at the table. DEI is also front and center on corporate agendas, as it should be. Our clients want to understand how their matters are staffed and how meaningful work and opportunities are allocated. They are also eager to learn about the types of programs and initiatives that move the needle on diversity, equity and inclusion. They look to their outside advisers to share our own best practices and facilitate introductions among like-minded organizations. The core of our DEI strategy is ensuring that women, underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and lawyers who identify as LGBTQ have access to quality work, opportunities for advancement, and positions of leadership at every stage of their careers.
We have several initiatives designed to recruit and retain women and diverse lawyers, create an inclusive culture, and provide meaningful opportunities for leadership and advancement:
- Creating DEI subcommittees of firm partners dedicated to recruiting, retention, training, client development, data, and communications;
- Developing affinity groups, led by firm leaders, to support women, racial and ethnic minorities, parents, veterans, first generation professionals, and LGBTQ+ lawyers;
- Implementing a standardized interview and evaluation process across all offices and departments;
- Refocusing our law school outreach to HBCU law schools and partnering with women and diverse law student organizations to sponsor events, conduct mock interviews, review resumes, and participate in panel discussions;
- Matching women and diverse attorneys with affinity group mentors in addition to their assigned departmental mentors;
- Appointing Associate and Staff Liaisons to our Diversity Committee to provide real-time feedback on matters impacting associate and staff colleagues;
- Monitoring our hiring and attrition statistics, in addition to hours billed by minority associates, to ensure equal access to skill-building assignments and top clients;
- Developing a DEI training curriculum for all lawyers and staff, including unconscious bias training and specialized interviewer training;
- Creating a DEI speaker series as part of our heritage month celebrations to raise awareness and promote a culture of belonging;
- Participating in and sponsoring diversity-related conferences and events organized by minority bar associations and organizations;
- Incorporating qualitative and quantitative DEI feedback into the partner evaluation and compensation process; and
- Implementing policies to support working parents, including a gender-neutral parental leave policy and an alternative work schedule program.
Clients also want to know that their outside firms support racial and social justice. At Baker Botts, we recently launched an initiative aimed at formalizing and expanding our current LGBTQ+ pro bono practice: Pride In Action. This initiative comprises a diverse group of the firm’s highly engaged lawyers, paralegals and administrative staff who have committed thousands of hours to pro bono matters in pursuit of justice and equality for the LGBTQ+ community. Pride In Action is a forum for lawyers to share resources and knowledge across different matters, and to establish a network of volunteers eager to assist on new LGBTQ+ pro bono matters.
In addition, our firm has an ongoing strategic collaboration with Official Black Wall Street (OBWS) to provide free legal support to more than 5,500 Black-owned business in the United States and abroad.
We all still have a great deal of work to do. We are proud to work alongside our clients as partners supporting their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. DEI is about true collaboration—not just carrots and sticks. As one general counsel told me, “Building diverse teams is not a zero-sum game. Diversity and inclusion is an opportunity to expand the pie.” We remain committed to maintaining a welcoming and inclusive workplace where DEI is always in action. This means continuing to demonstrate our collective responsibility to uphold our cultural commitments, supporting our underrepresented colleagues, and ensuring that our DEI efforts are not only meaningful – but measurable – as we pursue a more equitable and inclusive workforce.