I, Thomas M. Welsh, personally commit to the following:
Personal Commitment
- I will use my influence as a leader at Calfee to help create a structured recruitment and promotion process with clear, transparent, and merit-based criteria that succeeds in leveling the playing field for all attorneys and staff members.
- I will use my position among the firm’s leadership team to advocate for the continued development of initiatives that advance diversity and inclusion in ways that support an inclusive culture within the firm, in our service to clients, with our community partners and vendors, and within the communities in which we work and live.
- I will personally support Calfee’s sponsorship program, which invites participation by partners and junior attorneys who demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Organizational Commitment
- We will continue to provide firmwide unconscious bias training and optional DEI programming on a variety of topics.
- We will pursue successful completion of Mansfield Rule certification by complying with or exceeding all of the related initiatives that support the advancement of our firm’s DEI goals.
- We will fully support the firm’s sponsorship program for attorneys who demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion and ensure full participation of those firm leaders serving as sponsors.
- We will continue to explore, as a firm and in partnership with firm corporate clients, specific initiatives Calfee can develop and/or support to help drive meaningful pathways for all students with a strong acumen for STEM subjects to consider law school and a career in intellectual property law and especially as patent lawyers.
- We will continue to develop, refine, and offer bespoke attorney and staff training and coaching programs that are based on identifying and optimizing each individual’s natural strengths, talents, and communication/leadership styles in an effort to create a shared, inclusive cultural language that honors unique differences.
- We will continue to participate in and support local and regional programs and organizations that demonstrate a commitment to leveling the playing field for fulfillment and success.
- We will continue to participate in the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s “CommitCLE” program to expand the pool of vendors engaged by the firm to include MBEs and WBEs.