I, Tim Lupinacci, personally commit to the following:
Personal Commitment
- I will use my position and platform in Baker Donelson and the legal industry to advocate and drive meaningful progress in DE&I, including ensuring the success of the goals of Baker Donelson’s Diversity and Inclusion Compact.
- I will continue sponsoring at least four diverse lawyers annually, including monthly individual calls, introductions to key firm clients, opening up opportunities for firm-wide leadership and visibility and ensuring pathways to success.
- I will organize and host client CLE programs comprised of only diverse lawyers in their substantive areas of expertise.
- I will support and host when requested our ongoing “Courageous Conversations” series of lunch programs addressing various DE&I topics, including Firm clients and other outside voices to help us learn and grow.
- I will speak with the leaders of other law firm and GCs to talk about Baker Donelson’s ongoing efforts, share successes and failures, brainstorm and identify ways to help drive meaningful and measurable industry-wide and business-wide gains in DE&I.
- I will use my position to advocate for changes to improve the equity of processes such as work assignments, hiring and compensation.
- I will work with my undergraduate alma mater to engage in a mentor relationship with a diverse pre-law student to help build the pipeline of diverse law students and lawyers (Each 1 Mentor 1).
Organizational Commitment
- I will ensure that every diverse lawyer at Baker Donelson has a Firm Leader actively engaged in a robust sponsorship relationship, including monthly tracking of activities.
- I will explore creation of cross-sponsorship opportunities with at least 3 clients in 2023 and 2024, where firm leaders sponsor diverse client representatives and client leaders sponsor diverse Baker Donelson lawyers.
- I will ensure all resources, support and effort is done to ensure that Baker Donelson’s D&I Compact vision of being an industry leader in DE&I by December 31, 2025 is achieved.
- I will ensure specific annual DE&I goals and metrics for each Department Chair, Practice Group Leader and Office Manger with direct performance accountability guiding management credit allocations and decisions based on DE&I results.
- I will ensure that consistent with Baker Donelson’s D&I Compact Scorecard for Success that we build a roadmap to equity including specific actions for diverse lawyers to accomplish or experience at each stage of their progression to equity partner.
- I will support Baker Donelson’s D&I Compact’s goals and focus on robust DE&I recruitment, including building a pipeline of young lawyers from law school, including HBCUs, and lateral growth.
- I will actively resource and support our BakerBridge’s efforts to assist diverse owned businesses who cannot afford representation or otherwise sustain the legal budget necessary to position the business for long-term growth and sustained success.
- I will ensure that every firm-wide meeting, Committee and Initiative includes diverse speakers, voices and leadership.
- I will ensure that the leader of our DE&I efforts continues active participation, voice and influence in all C-Suite meetings, discussions and decisions.
- My firm will implement an automated feedback system in which attorneys receive frequent, concrete feedback and managers are assessed base on the frequency and quality of the feedback they give.
- Within two years, I will work with my firm to create partner compensation incentives so that partners are evaluated on their personal contributions to DE&I, including the demographics of client matter teams, where the shareholder has designated a diverse lawyer to serve in a senior relationship role, and introductions of diverse lawyers into client relationships.
Metrics
Baker Donelson’s D&I Compact describes our percentages of diverse lawyers, diverse shareholders , diverse equity shareholders and diverse management teams, including by category of Department Chairs, Practice Group Leaders, Board and Office Leaders as of July 1, 2020. The D&I Compact set the current industry average percentages and outlines a goal to be an industry leader in each of these metrics by December 31, 2025. In support of this, we have created individual Practice Group and Office level strategic plans to achieve annual progress on the D&I Compact. We have tied the leaders’ management compensation credit to their efforts in executing these plans and making measurable progress.