What Biglaw Is Saying About The Unrest Sweeping The Nation

From: Theiss, Paul W.
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2020 1:03 PM
To: FW-ALL
Subject: Pulling Together in Support, and our Renewed Commitment to Making a Difference

Dear Colleagues,

We are living in anxious and difficult times. Our times became exponentially more anxious and more difficult last week. On May 25, in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, police officers arrested George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man suspected of a nonviolent crime (a store employee called the police accusing him of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill). Mr. Floyd was killed during the course of his arrest, as clearly shown on video and now seen by most or all of us and hundreds of millions of others around the world.

The killing of Mr. Floyd has followed similar recent and widely publicized tragedies, including the police-involved killing of Breonna Taylor and the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, in which so many other Black Americans have been victimized before them. These events, individually and collectively, have left us feeling sad, frustrated, anxious and angry. They are incomprehensible, but at the same time not incomprehensible enough. These most recent events have taken place during an unprecedented global pandemic, which has been challenging for all of us, but has been especially devastating for the Black community and other communities of color worldwide, which have experienced significantly higher rates of COVID-19-induced loss and suffering. And, for a community that is already grieving, the events of this past week have instilled fear and reopened psychological wounds accumulated over centuries of oppression and racism. These events serve as jarring reminders of the discrimination, bigotry and sense of “not belonging” that Black people and other marginalized groups endure every day, inside and outside of the workplace. To these colleagues, I want to send a clear and unequivocal message: Please know that we stand with you and in support of you.

At Mayer Brown, our core values are grounded in the principle that every individual—each and every individual—is equally worthy of respect and appreciation. We recognize the value that diversity and inclusion bring to our business and to our communities and we have a corresponding responsibility to speak up when our core values are undermined.

As members of the legal community, we bear a special and heightened responsibility. We understand that the rule of law requires that everyone, and especially those in power, be held accountable for their actions. Those who failed to protect or even recognize George Floyd’s human rights should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Mayer Brown stands in solidarity with all who lawfully seek justice for those who have been denied their civil liberties and human rights, and particularly when that denial has such tragic and irreversible consequences.

Even as we seek ways to channel our raw emotions of sadness, frustration, anxiety and anger, I call upon the Mayer Brown community to embrace this situation with a sense of urgency as an opportunity for transformational change. I think of this call to action as having two parts—first, as an opportunity to accelerate our progress to make Mayer Brown a more diverse community and, crucially, a more inclusive one, to the benefit of our clients and ourselves. And second, I call upon us to fulfill our responsibility to use our immense talents and our platform to seek needed change in our society and to use our individual resources, talents and networks to take action in support of marginalized communities.

On the first point, I invite each of you to join me in:

– listening to and learning from colleagues and friends who have experienced or witnessed discrimination;

– educating ourselves about the unique and complex relationship that Black people and other people of color have with their communities and their institutions, including their workplaces;

– examining the bias in our own thoughts and behaviors;

– engaging our friends and family in uncomfortable conversations about the problem of racism and bigotry of all kinds; and

– understanding that many members of the Mayer Brown family have been psychologically and emotionally affected by these ongoing injustices and showing them that they have our unwavering support.

The voices of our people, particularly through our affinity groups, will continue to play a critical role as we create space for these important discussions. I am grateful to those of you who have shared your thoughts and experiences within the firm. I stand in solidarity with each of you.

On the second point, we start from the proposition that making a positive difference in the communities where we live and work is a core value of Mayer Brown. And while this work will never be finished, and it will never be “good enough,” we have a longstanding history of doing exactly that. Indeed our former partner and current mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, assisted by a number of our lawyers and with the firm’s backing, headed up the newly formed Chicago Police Accountability Task Force, which was launched in response to the murder of a 17-year-old Black youth named Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer. Five years ago the report was published and found “racism and systemic failures in the city’s police force, validating complaints made for years by African-American residents.” A number of important changes resulted, so it was an important step in this journey.

But we were reminded last week that this journey remains in its infancy. It is in this spirit that we recommit to marshalling our considerable resources and embracing our responsibilities as members of the local, national and global legal communities, to help in bringing about badly needed change. Late last week and over the weekend we’ve been considering the best way to organize ourselves around this effort, and we are committed to pulling together a group of our lawyers and business services staff to better organize our efforts in this regard. I will be back to you early next week with the names of the individuals serving on our task force, and their mission and goals. If you would like to contribute your thoughts, efforts and ideas to this endeavor, please do not hesitate to raise your hand.

Please also know that your well-being and safety is paramount. If there is anything that Mayer Brown can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Jeremy, other members of the Management Committee, members of the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in the U.S. or its equivalent outside the U.S., Jerry DeBerry, or your local affinity group leaders. We are all here to support you. We feel the sadness, frustration, anxiety and anger of members of the Black community as best we can, while knowing that those of us who have never faced racial discrimination or violence cannot fully feel that pain because we haven’t walked in the shoes of those who have.

I will borrow from Mayor Lightfoot’s remarks yesterday, with her presumed permission: “We have to turn our pain into purpose in order to get through this moment together and . . . to move us forward in a way that is more equitable, inclusive and just. I know in my heart and in my soul that we will be able to learn from this moment and move forward together.”

Thanks.

Paul