WELCOME

Welcome to the first edition of DLA Piper’s new electronic D&I newsletter. This issue looks at some of our successes of the past year, and what a year it has been! We launched a number of important initiatives in 2010, and we are pleased to share a few highlights with you.

Throughout March, we embarked on our inaugural celebration of Women’s History Month and the many contributions and accomplishments of women in the law. This national event, the first of its kind at DLA Piper, was intended to promote the development of meaningful relationships among our women lawyers and their female counterparts at our client companies. This initial effort was quite successful and we plan to continue it this year.

During 2010, we also launched our Alternative Work Schedule program. With leadership from our joint CEO, Lee Miller, and the support of the Project for Attorney Retention, we adopted a set of best practices to guide a flexible work program that better meets the life/work demands of our diverse workforce and will help us attract and retain the best legal talent.

In the legal profession, we continued to be a leader in advancing diversity and inclusion. Frank Burch, DLA Piper chairman, was among the law firm leaders and general counsel to join the board of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. This organization, the next generation of the Call To Action, takes a collaborative approach to advancing the legal industry’s diversity goals. Under Frank’s leadership, we are supporting the LCLD’s diversity pipeline development initiative and are looking forward to implementing several programs that will help more minority students move from undergraduate to law school education.

While we celebrate all that has been accomplished, there is much more to be done. According to the National Association for Law Placement, in 2010, for the first time in 17 years, the industry saw a reduction in the number of diverse lawyers, following a period of growth that was at best marginal. Further, minority women continue to be severely underrepresented and experience the highest rate of attrition. This means the recruitment, retention and development of diverse lawyers are more critical than ever, especially in this economic climate. In 2011, we will be targeting schools with large numbers of diverse students and employing innovative predictors of success to find the best and the brightest. Additionally, we will be implementing new initiatives designed to improve the retention and development of our lawyers.

We will remain focused on these issues in 2011 and beyond, with the ultimate goal of creating a more inclusive firm with more highly successful diverse lawyers.

Onward and upward!


Genhi Givings Bailey
Director, Diversity and Inclusion

JANUARY 2011

LEARN MORE

We invite you to take a closer look at our firm and our culture of diversity and inclusion.

WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE DIVERSITY
IN THE LEGAL INDUSTRY

DLA Piper is a proud member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), an organization of general counsel and law firm managing partners dedicated to creating a truly diverse legal profession.

By taking a collaborative approach to challenges and solutions, the LCLD hopes to advance diversity and inclusion in the legal profession to a material degree. Led by Executive Director Robert Grey, former president of the ABA, the board is chaired by Rick Palmore and comprised of general counsel and managing partners from companies and firms throughout the United States. Frank Burch serves as secretary of the board.

Read more about this broad-based effort.

Frank Burch, DLA Piper
Chairman, serves as a board 
member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

One of our largest endeavors in 2010 was celebrating Women’s History Month. Throughout March, our US offices hosted numerous events to strengthen relationships with our clients, promote our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and celebrate women in the law.

The celebration was planned by our women’s affinity group, Leadership Alliance for Women (LAW) and supported by the entire firm. We are especially grateful for the support of our women speakers, who made each event so meaningful.

Learn more about the Women’s History Month events held in our offices across the US.

NEW ALTERNATIVE WORK SCHEDULE PROGRAM SUPPORTS AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE

In July, DLA Piper launched a new Alternative Work Schedule program for our lawyers in the US to support the further development of a diverse and inclusive culture and our business strategy of attracting and retaining top-quality talent. The program stems from our involvement in the Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), which studies work/life issues in the legal profession. In 2009, PAR formed The Diversity and Flexibility Connection, a group of 12 general counsel and 12 law firm chairs, among them Lee Miller, DLA Piper’s Joint Chief Executive Officer, to develop best practices for integrating flexible work arrangements into the profession. The results of the group’s efforts encouraged many firms, including DLA Piper, to implement PAR’s best practices and make real change to the standard business model in the legal industry.

DLA Piper lawyers on alternative work schedules enjoy the same opportunities for career success as those on standard schedules, including responsibility for important client relationships, leadership and advancement. Currently, about 100 lawyers are on alternative work schedules at DLA Piper, representing all national practice groups.

Lee Miller
Joint Chief Executive Officer

DIVERSITY PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT

In 2010, we continued our commitment to contribute to the education and development of future legal professionals, from early childhood through law school. Here are just a few of our endeavors:

Atlanta Lawyer Leads Nonprofit to Aid Pipeline Development
Anthony Webb (Atlanta) co-founded Boys Speak Out (BSO), a nonprofit dedicated to the social and professional development of disadvantaged middle school students, when he was a second-year law student in 2006. Now a DLA Piper associate, Anthony has fostered a partnership between DLA Piper and the BSO’s For a Day series, which, as BSO notes, “helps students sharpen their professional goals while learning about hard work, dedication and surrounding one’s self with positive people.”

In 2010, DLA Piper sponsored Law Student For a Day programs at Emory, Harvard and the University of Chicago law schools. We also sponsored Lawyer For a Day programs in our Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC offices. At each LFAD event, the students met with and spoke to lawyers and staff from many practice groups and departments, learning what interested and motivated our professionals when they were students and what led them to their current careers. BSO’s For a Day programs have grown in scope over the years to include Doctor for a Day, Business Student For a Day and Supreme Court Justice For a Day.


Giving Undergraduate Students Perspectives
Throughout the summer, we again partnered with the Level Playing Field’s IDEAL Scholars program and the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholars program to provide summer internships for minority undergraduates in our San Francisco Office.

The Level Playing Field Institute’s IDEAL Scholars program is a six-week internship for low-income, under-represented students of color attending the University of California-Berkeley who are interested in pursuing law school. The Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) provides four-year college scholarships to disadvantaged students of color to ensure their success in college and develop their leadership potential. DLA Piper’s close relationship with the JRF, including our providing office space and resources to JRF’s West Coast operations in Los Angeles, came about through Los Angeles Managing Partner Michael Meyer, who is on the JRF board and is a longtime supporter of its scholarship program.

During their internship with us, the students shadow DLA Piper lawyers and staff; at the culmination of their internship, they deliver a presentation on the functions and synergies of the departments with which they worked. The goal of the internship is to give the students some perspective of what it is like to work in a large law firm and to develop an appreciation for all jobs performed. Hear from past IDEAL scholars in a YouTube presentation provided by the Level Playing Field Institute.

Anthony Webb welcomes
students to the Lawyer for a
Day program at DLA Piper’s
Atlanta office

Andrew Valentine (second left)
hosts Silicon Valley’s Lawyer
for a Day Program

Using our TelePresence system, Andrew virtually introduces students to Diane Ross, Director of Legal Recruiting (Washington, DC), Partner John Dougherty (Baltimore) and Diversity Specialist Vivian Calender (Chicago), who told the students about their roles and work at the firm

D&I PERSPECTIVES: INDUSTRY LEADERS SPEAK

Marbury Institute’s Diversity and Inclusion Series
Among DLA Piper’s professional development programs is the Marbury Institute, dedicated to teaching the highest standards of the legal profession through speaker series focusing on topics critical to understanding the practice of law in the world today. In keeping with the firm’s view of diversity and inclusion as fundamental to our success, in December 2009, the Marbury Institute at DLA Piper launched the Diversity and Inclusion Series, featuring industry leaders who share their perspectives on diversity and their career paths.

Presentations to date:

More D&I Speaker Presentations
Our Affinity Groups also help organize speaker events, featuring leaders from within DLA Piper and from the legal and business industries offering their unique perspectives. These presentations are often broadcast via video/audio conference throughout all DLA Piper’s offices in the US. Among these events:

The Defense of Marriage Act
In July 2010, the District Court in Massachusetts ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. GLAD was there. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) has been at the forefront of litigation challenging DOMA and has contended that the Act’s definition of marriage violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and represents an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government into states’ marriage laws. In late 2009, GLAD Executive Director Lee Swislow and Staff Attorney Janson Wu spoke to more than 170 DLA Piper lawyers on the challenges mounted against DOMA. This CLE presentation was the first in a series of educational programs that GLAD agreed to present as part of a Partnership for Equality between the firm and GLAD. This partnership commitment has enabled DLA Piper to collaborate with GLAD on a variety of fronts, including cutting-edge legal work and educational programs.

Marriage, Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions: The Financial and Legal Impacts of These Relationships
In October, Judi O’Kelly, Lambda Legal’s Director of Life Planning, and Frederick Hertz, a California-based lawyer who counsels same-sex partners on the formation and dissolution of same-sex relationships, addressed tax and estate planning considerations and the legal documents relevant to those who are married, in civil unions or domestic partnerships for both same-sex and opposite sex relationships.

Michelle Coleman Mayes,
Vice President and General Counsel, Allstate Insurance Company, spoke about mentoring across differences in the legal profession

Teri Plummer McClure,
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, UPS, spoke about diversity pipeline developments within the legal and corporate communities

RECOGNITION

DLA Piper Among the Best Places to Work
For the third consecutive year, DLA Piper has earned a top rating of 100 percent in the Corporate Equality Index published by the Human Rights Campaign. The annual survey assesses the policies and practices of large US employers relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. Because of the perfect score, HRC has once again recognized DLA Piper with its 2011 Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality award. Read the full story.

DEMOGRAPHIC SNAPSHOTS

Diverse Lawyers
Though achieving diversity and inclusion cannot be gauged through headcount alone, the numbers are part of how we track progress. Here is a current picture of our lawyer demographics in the US.

2010 Diverse Partner Promotions: Congratulations
In the past three years, DLA Piper has made great strides in strengthening the diversity of our firmwide community, in part through recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse partners. We are pleased to welcome those who have joined us in that time, and we congratulate our diverse lawyers who were promoted to partner in 2010. Of those promoted in the US, 72 percent were diverse.

Camilo Cardozo, Litigation
Angela Crawford, Litigation
Carrie Hartley, Finance
Ray Hartman, Litigation
Megan Shea Harwick, Litigation
Penny Minna, Corporate and Securities
Kim Pagotto, Real Estate
Nancy Rappaport, Litigation
Tom Zutic, Intellectual Property and Technology

Thank you for your interest in DLA Piper’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Please send your questions, comments and ideas for future newsletters to Genhi Givings Bailey, Director, Diversity and Inclusion, and Vivian Calender, Diversity Specialist. We also encourage you to visit DLA Piper’s Diversity and Inclusion website.

You have received this mailing as a client or friend of DLA Piper. You may subscribe to any of our mailings lists here. You may unsubscribe to all DLA Piper mailing lists here. You may also write to us at: DLA Piper, 401 B Street, Suite 1700, San Diego, CA 92101 Attn: Marketing Department. Attorney Advertising. Frank Burch, frank.burch@dlapiper.com, 6225 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21209

www.dlapiper.com

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