Rob Beard

I will sponsor and support leadership-development programs that provide career opportunities specifically targeted, but not exclusive, to diverse lawyers within my legal department, including by supporting diverse law school students.

I will lead our Legal & Global Affairs team’s efforts in our company’s approach to advancing equity and inclusion, In Solidarity, to ensure it delivers measurable results.  As part of this program, I will advance our team’s focus on issues of human dignity, including by continued advocacy of support of businesses owned by members of underrepresented groups, criminal justice reform, and financial inclusion.

I will advocate for operationalizing our company’s Human Rights Statement.

I will meet annually with the Managing Partner/Chair of each of the legal department’s top firms  about my expectations regarding DE&I for the work they do for my organization.

I will participate in LCLD events this year and next year to demonstrate my commitment to the organization, including: (i) an LCLD Learning Experience and selecting  at least two Fellows in attendance for a follow-up conversation, (ii) a Language of Leadership webinar, (iii) an LCLD Leadership lunch, (iv) hosting LCLD 1L Scholars, and (v) 1L law school mentoring.

I will meet twice per year with my organization’s LCLD Fellows, Pathfinders, and Alumni to discuss their experiences. I will ask everyone to come to the meeting with a recommendation for how we could improve the work of LCLD to foster greater diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

I will require that senior leaders in my legal department foster a close client-firm relationship with diverse staff and partners working on company matters by reaching out directly to them.

I will require 100% diverse slates for all hiring/promotions within my department. I will communicate to hiring managers and interviewers about the business case for diverse talent/representation.

I will require diversity to be an important consideration in succession planning for internal legal leadership positions. I will measure retention and career progression in my law department and advocate for equity in the filling of new job opportunities.

I will assess our top law firms based on their diversity efforts, including diversity across firm management, compensation committees, allocation of origination credit, and hours worked on our matters. Firms should achieve, demonstrate a concrete plan to achieve, or show marked improvement toward, a goal of 30% minority and 50% female for each of these items.

I will work to expand our company’s relationship with NAMWOLF firms and increase the percentage of legal spend that is devoted to diverse firms.  Our goal is to continue to increase our NAMWOLF legal spend every year until we achieve 10% of total legal spend.

I will  advance my organization’s commitment to pay equity by meeting or exceeding our objectives for progress set forth in our annual bonus plan.  I will audit pay equity and adjust for unsupportable or unjustified discrepancies between majority and minority employees.