Diversity in Practice 10th Anniversary

Twin Cities Diversity in Practice was established by a group of unlikely Diversity Champions in May of 2005. Over 10 years ago the key leaders at our large firms and corporate law departments decided to pursue a collective effort to attract/recruit/advance and retain lawyers of color in and to the Twin Cities. These leaders got together with key partners of color in the Twin Cities to address the lack of diversity, particularly, the lack of lawyers of color in the Twin Cities Metro area.  In 2005 these leaders officially formed Twin Cities Lawyers Group (now known as Twin Cities Diversity in Practice), patterned after the Boston Lawyers Group.  This began a journey that continues today.

The amazing thing about all of this is the collaboration between both clients and outside counsel.  They came together to join resources and hired a full-time Executive Director. As the Twin Cities Lawyers Group changed its name to Twin Cities Diversity in Practice and grew over that first year the partners in the journey did not leave, but instead held strong to their commitment.

Seema Shah was the first Executive Director of Diversity in Practice. With her care and attention to detail the foundation for what we have today was established.  As with the practice of law, the organization and its members have grown and in some cases expanded. But without that care in the first few years we would not be celebrating 10 years today.

The founding Law Firms put forth the resources to get the association off the ground and to this day, continue to support the work of the organization. The original Board of Directors consisted of 14 leaders from across both Corporate Law Departments and Law Firm Board rooms while our current Board now consists of 26 Board Directors.  While we began with a little over 20 organizations, we now have 46 members ranging in size from 10 attorneys to over 300. Our mission has stayed the same – to attract, recruit, advance, and retain attorneys of color in and to the Twin Cities legal community.

The focus of Diversity in Practice has always been local and practical.  There are many Diversity organizations that focus on one or the other or are National in scope.  Diversity in Practice is known and recognized for the work they are doing and the support they give, which is unique for a market of this size.

In 2005,  5% of the attorneys in our member law firms were lawyers of color and in our corporate law departments we were not doing much better. There have been so many changes, particularly in our private law firm hiring that affect all that we are doing.  In 2008 when many organizations were cutting funding for diversity efforts our members continued their support and through this support were able to not only maintain our high quality programming and support for our members but to track the real impact the recession had on our market.

During my tenure we have significantly increased programming and support for our young lawyers of color and members.  We continue to offer high quality professional development programming and CLE opportunities; we have an active and invested Young Lawyers Group whose leaders now have a seat at the table; we provide thought provoking leadership breakfasts on everything from unconscious bias to Sponsorship; and we have increased our communications to and with our members by providing data on who in their organizations are participating and what they are participating in. We will work even harder over the coming years to bring data in ways that both inform and guide our Board in all that we do.

We must continue our journey by supporting our members in their Diversity efforts and by ensuring that out lawyers of color get the support and resources they need to advance in their careers.  In 2015 and beyond the hard work of retention will move many of us outside our comfort zones. The practice of law has forever changed and our Diversity and Inclusion efforts must change also.

The real challenge for our organization is to stay relevant and ahead of the market on all Diversity and Inclusion efforts. As the demands on our members change our support must reflect that change so that the lawyers we are attracting and recruiting not only stay in our market but advance in our market.  We must hold each other accountable for these efforts because we all do better when Diversity in Practice does better.

Val Jensen
Executive Director
Twin Cities Diversity in Practice