Jason Wilson

• I will use my voice as a leader in Willenken and the profession to advocate for DE&I in the legal profession and in my community.
• I will attend, contribute to, and learn from the members of LCLD to note and implement best practices in developing strategies, policies, procedures, and practices to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• I will partner with a general counsel to host an LCLD Leadership Lunch in the next two years.
• I will work to implement unconscious bias training on an annual basis.
• I will continue to seek and leverage opportunities to be an advocate for meaningfully increasing diversity in the legal profession.
• I will continue to ensure that DE&I is a core value of Willenken, and is reflected in how we recruit, develop, retain, and advance talent.
• I will ensure that Willenken’s legal service providers understand, value, and advance our DE&I expectations.
• I will connect with national and local resources and groups, including LCLD and the Law Firm Anti-Racism Alliance, and peers to share best practices and support initiatives that advance diversity in the legal profession.
• I will regularly meet with diverse talent at all levels within Willenken to help support them on their career path.
• I will regularly meet with clients (including LCLD member clients) to find opportunities to partner and collaborate to advance our respective DE&I efforts, as well as the careers of diverse lawyers within our institutions.
• I will meet two times a year with Willenken’s LCLD Fellows, Pathfinders, and Alumni to discuss their experiences within the organization, and request each of them to recommend something we could do better.

• We will continue to foster and maintain an inclusive environment where diverse lawyers feel welcomed, valued, and supported and can thrive.
• We will sponsor diversity-related organizations, such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Black Woman Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, that advance DE&I in the legal profession and beyond.
• We will continue to hire, mentor, retain, and promote diverse candidates. In 2021, all of our hires at both the staff and attorney level were diverse.
• We will continue to leverage a comprehensive lateral associate and partner recruiting strategy aimed at identifying diverse talent and ensuring candidates from underrepresented groups will be considered for all lateral hires.
• We will include diverse team members in business development efforts, empowering them with client-facing roles early in their tenure with the firm.
• We recognize Juneteenth as a firm holiday and will continue to promote action and education related to racial and social justice issues.
• We will ensure that diversity and inclusion, equality, equity, and justice remain hallmarks of Willenken.
• We will continue to deploy trial teams which value diversity and give speaking roles in the courtroom to diverse attorneys.
• We will ask partners to add DE&I to the meeting agenda for any “relationship review meetings” with clients and explore client interest in collaborating on DE&I projects.
• We will develop a framework to focus on DE&I for our professional staff, including increasing diversity at the senior levels of our professional staff through development, promotion and hiring.
• We will actively participate in LCLD by nominating at least one Fellow and/or Pathfinder annually and attending two or more leadership meetings/summits per year.
• We will continue to encourage and protect associates’ time for pro bono representation, including for matters related to and in partnership with organizations that challenge the legacy and status quo of systemic injustice and violence towards historically marginalized groups in this country.
• We will encourage our attorneys to actively participate in and support organizations that support diversity in the legal profession, including LCLD, NAPABA, NAMWOLF, and LFAA.
• We will create and integrate DE&I programming for lawyers and professional staff to support an inclusive workplace.
• We will publish this pledge on Willenken’s internal and external websites.

To learn more about Jason, click here.