Diverse lawyers recruitment

At Locke Lord, we are all too aware that the number of diverse students entering and remaining in the legal profession is insufficient to appropriately advance the profession.

Our recruitment efforts differ from the ordinary in several substantive ways.

First, Locke Lord utilizes the services of diverse search firms in recruiting lawyers for lateral hiring. Use of firms which are more connected with diverse lawyer populations increases our likelihood of successfully recruiting women, diverse and LGBTQ lawyers. We also are committed to increasing our proportionate spending with minority and women-owned search firms. Most recently, our law school outreach program has fostered genuine relationships between participating individual Locke Lord lawyers, their law school alma maters and current students.

In addition, the Firm not only attends job/networking fairs organized by local diverse bar associations and organizations, but also we are actively involved in organizing such events. We financially support diverse student organizations’ functions, and also participate directly by speaking and/or attending. We continue to participate in the 1L LCLD Scholars Program, Cook County Bar Association Minority Job Fair, Georgetown Diversity Resume Collect, Lavender Law Career Fair, Southwest Black Law Students Association Job Fair and Sunbelt Minority Job Fair. We also participate in the New York City Bar’s Diversity Fellowship Program.

The diversity in newly recruited lawyers is due, in part, to our innovative recruitment tools and the Firm’s structure. The hiring of first-year lawyers is managed through the Firm’s Law School Recruiting Coordinating Committee. The Recruiting Committee and Firm-wide Diversity and Inclusion Committee work closely together, along with the Directors of Human Resources, Recruiting and Lateral Hiring, creating a “cross-training” network that considers diversity and inclusion in every aspect of the hiring process. It is the explicit responsibility of the Recruiting Committee, in conjunction with the Director of Recruiting, to ensure that our pool of candidates for lawyer positions is appropriately diverse.