Barbara Becker

• Use my voice as a leader in my organization, and in the profession, to advocate for DE&I in the legal profession and in the communities in which we reside.
• Lead by example by maintaining a diverse leadership team of lawyers who are in charge of offices, practice groups and committees, and ensure that our firm leadership pipeline includes diverse lawyers, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds.
• Use my position among our firm’s leadership to examine hiring, evaluation and promotion practices to determine how they support or prohibit progress, and work to implement interventions to remove barriers accordingly.
• Regularly meet with diverse talent at all levels within the firm to help support them on their career path. I will likewise encourage members of my leadership team to do the same.
• Regularly meet with clients (including LCLD member clients) to find opportunities to partner and collaborate to advance our respective diversity efforts as well as the careers of diverse lawyers within our institutions.
• Have an open door policy to engage with underrepresented groups to listen to their perspectives and experiences, and to support programs like our Diverse Perspectives in the Law Series and Book Clubs that explore similar issues.
• Host a LCLD Leadership Lunch and annual gatherings with our current and former LCLD Pathfinders.

• Foster an inclusive environment where lawyers (particularly underrepresented minorities) feel welcomed and supported at work.
• Require practice group leaders to work with our Chief Diversity Officer to prepare and present to firm leadership action plans to advance diverse talent within the group.
• Develop mentorship and sponsorship programs as well as strong affinity groups and retreats to help create opportunities for diverse attorneys to advance at the firm.
• Encourage all partners to get engaged in diversity recruitment, particularly diverse lateral partners, by working to expand the schools and networks that we typically recruit from.
• Create best-in-class policies and practices that advance our diversity and inclusion goals, and work to dismantle informal, unspoken rules that interrupt the effectiveness of our policies and practices.
• Ensure that diversity and inclusion is on the agenda at the highest levels (Executive Committee presentations) and all firmwide gatherings (including our New Lawyer Academy, New Partner Retreat, Partners-in-Charge Gathering, Partner Retreat, Practice Groups meetings, etc.).
• Support the firm’s Racial Justice & Equity Initiative, a joint pro bono and diversity program, which seeks to champion diversity not just within our firm and the legal industry, but society at large.
• Work with our business development department to ensure that diversity is woven into all areas of their work, particularly to ensure that pitch teams reflect the diversity of the firm.
• Sponsor diversity-related organizations, pipeline programs and community organizations that advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession and beyond.
• Refine how we track diversity demographics for the billing hours of timekeepers on all client matters through our partner dashboard and bills that detail each partner’s progress on staffing diverse talent.
• Monitor and increase our diversity supplier spend for client vendors and through programs such as the MLT Black Equity at Work Certification, which is a first-of-its-kind roadmap for companies committed to achieving Black equity.
• Examine our quantitative diversity metrics, including our attrition and promotion data of ethnically diverse lawyers, as well as qualitative data such as exit interviews and interviews with our diverse attorneys.

To learn more about Barbara, click here.