Biglaw

Top Biglaw Firm Celebrates Inclusiveness With New Partner Class That's 75 Percent Diverse

The firm also promoted someone who was on caregiver leave.

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Year in and year out, we watch law firm after law firm pay lip service to their commitment to diversity in the legal profession, with promises to recruit, retain, and promote more attorneys who are racially and ethnically diverse, LGBTQ+, and/or women, as well as those with disabilities. Despite these continued assurances, many Biglaw firms are falling behind when it comes to this important metric to create a more inclusive workplace, while others continue to perform beyond expectations, hitting it out of the park for diversity over and over again.

In our New Partner Watch feature, we write about new partnership classes at selected firms. We tend to write about announcements that are, for one reason or another, interesting. For this current cycle, we’ll be focusing on diversity (or the lack thereof) among new Biglaw partners. If you think you have a class that merits scrutiny, please email us (subject line: “New Partner Watch”).

Today’s topic: The 14 new partners at Orrick, which the firm just announced on Friday. From their press release (emphasis ours):

Orrick is delighted to announce the promotion of 14 lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2021. …

The class reflects Orrick’s longstanding commitment to inclusion. Seventy-five percent of the U.S. class members are diverse and/or women, exceeding the Mansfield Rule standard. Continuing a trend of the past four years, we are delighted to promote a member of the class while on caregiver leave.

“It took extraordinary grit, adaptability and character to complete one’s partner candidacy over the past year – and we believe those qualities are key to outstanding lawyering in the future,” said Orrick’s Chairman & CEO Mitch Zuklie. “We have no doubt that we will be a stronger firm because of this exceptional class.”

Congratulations to these 14 new partners on grabbing the ultimate Biglaw brass ring, and congratulations to Orrick on the impressive diversity of its class. The new partners are diverse according to many metrics — by practice area, geography, racial or ethnic background, and gender. On top of that, Orrick continues to demonstrate that it’s possible for attorneys to practice law and attain the greatest heights of success while balancing their family lives by promoting someone who was on caregiver leave.

Fresh off announcing its new diversity pipeline program, Orrick went above and beyond for the sake of diversity in its new partner class. If you’re in-house and you care about the diversity of your lawyers, you should know that Orrick does as well.

Can any other Biglaw firm compete with Orrick’s true commitment to diversity?

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Orrick Promotes 14 to Partner [Orrick]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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