Diversity Champs

Susan Hansen

Corporate Counsel

01-01-2013

James Breedlove

General Counsel, Praxair Inc.

When it comes to workplace diversity, companies in old-line manufacturing and heavy industry have lagged behind their consumer-products peers. Praxair, a Danbury, Connecticut–based supplier of specialized gases for industrial use, was certainly no exception—at least until recently. Indeed, when James Breedlove took over as Praxair's general counsel in late 2004, he recalls that the company's legal department employed just two women attorneys, and exactly one lawyer of color—an African American male.

Today, after less than a decade under Breedlove's stewardship, the mix is much improved. Nearly a quarter of Praxair's in-house legal team in the United States is now composed of minorities, and roughly 40 percent of the company's 68 lawyers worldwide are women.

"These aren't big numbers, but we're going in the right direction," says Breedlove, who also gives credit to Praxair chairman and CEO Stephen Angel for leading the charge on companywide diversity efforts. "He's set the right tone at the top," says Breedlove.

To keep the department's momentum going, Breedlove says that continuing to cast a wider recruiting net is key. Because the department likes to hire experienced lawyers, it relies on outside headhunters rather than going to law schools to find potential hires. Breedlove, though, says that those search firms have been given clear instructions about the need to expand the pool of minority and women job candidates.

Moreover, once those candidates are hired, Breedlove says he and other managers are committed to giving them the sort of experience and coaching they need to rise through the ranks. "We focus a lot on leadership development," says Breedlove. The result: More minority lawyers have moved into management positions, including Shanghai-based Stephen Riddick, who currently heads up legal operations for Praxair's Asia division and Mexican-born Guillermo Bichara, who formerly served as the company's top lawyer in both Mexico and Asia and is now associate general counsel.

At the same time, Breedlove has also been prodding the company's outside firms to put more women and minority lawyers on Praxair matters. So far his efforts to ensure that those firms comply with his wishes has been relatively informal. "I measure it with a 'visual test'—I can see who's on the legal team doing the work," says Breedlove, who adds that while he has seen some progress on diversity, outside firms still have a long way to go.

Breedlove could, of course, take away matters from firms that don't do better on the diversity front. But for now he prefers the carrot approach. One example: He recently signed up a firm he hadn't used previously to handle some new environmental matters. The firm had high-caliber legal experience, Breedlove's most important criterion, but he says that the fact that the managing partner was African American also influenced his decision.

As Breedlove notes, a more diverse mix of lawyers, whether at outside firms or in-house, brings far richer experience and a broader range of perspectives on various business and legal issues. Thus, he's convinced that promoting diversity makes good business sense. "It's not just a flavor-of-the-month, trendy thing," says Breedlove. "We need to keep sending a clear message that diversity is important."

Donald Liu

General Counsel, Xerox Corporation

Xerox general counsel Donald Liu considers himself lucky to be working for an enlightened company. Indeed, as the 51-year-old Liu points out, the Norwalk, Connecticut–based Xerox has long set a shining example on diversity initiatives, having been the first Fortune 500 company to hire an African American woman as CEO, and a clear leader in placing women and minorities throughout its management ranks.

Those efforts certainly produced noticeable results in the company's legal department. When Liu came aboard as GC in 2007, roughly 40 percent of Xerox's then-100-lawyer in-house legal team was female, and minorities made up a quarter of the staff, in addition to holding a third of the department's management spots. "I was fortunate to inherit a very diverse staff," recalls Liu.

Unfortunately, Liu found that the outside firms handling Xerox matters had not made nearly as much progress on the diversity front. So he decided he needed to help move the effort along. The first step: clearly communicating to firms, both verbally and in writing, that Xerox expected to see more diverse staffing on its matters.

Next, the legal department began keeping close tabs on the firms' progress. Liu and other managers now track hours billed by women and minority lawyers, along with the overall effort and commitment to diversity, then assign rankings and report back to firms on where they stand.

The result? Over the past few years, Liu has seen definite advances. "The response generally has been very positive," he says. Still, he contends that firms need to go further. "There hasn't been enough improvement," says Liu, who vows to keep up the push for progress.

"Diversity is a marathon," says Liu. "If you view it as a sprint, you'll get disappointed, and burn out quickly."

Meanwhile, Liu also remains committed to keeping the legal department's diversity efforts moving forward. Thanks to the company's 2010 acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS), the department found itself overseeing a group of roughly 50 additional ex–ACS lawyers. But apparently diversity wasn't as high a priority at ACS, because the group included comparatively few minorities and women. "It was substantially less diverse than we were, and lot less diverse than we wanted," recalls Liu, who says the fix was obvious. The group needed to widen its recruiting net, and begin hiring more diverse lawyers. "We've already seen an increase in diversity there," says Liu.

But Liu is quick to note that promoting diversity doesn't just mean posting better lawyer numbers. He believes it's also important to encourage in-house lawyers to get directly engaged on diversity-related issues. For some, that may mean working on the legal department's diversity committee. For others it might mean mentoring a minority law student or getting involved with a minority advocacy group like the NAACP or the Hispanic or LGBT bar.

That kind of extracurricular activity is good for the cause of diversity, says Liu. Plus, it tends to make for happier, more productive lawyers. "It's something that we try to recognize, and celebrate," says Liu.

Gary Kennedy

General Counsel, American Airlines

As a nearly 30-year veteran of American Airlines's legal department, Gary Kennedy has witnessed the effort to build a more inclusive workplace firsthand. "We had what I considered to be a fairly active diversity program," says Kennedy.

Still, Kennedy believed that the department could do better. So after moving into the pilot's seat as general counsel in 2003, Kennedy decided to step up the effort. And it shows. Over the past decade, roughly two-thirds of new attorney hires at the Fort Worth, Texas–based company have been women, and about half have been minorities. The result? Of the department's 31 lawyers, 10 are women, and eight are persons of color. Moreover, in the past five years, women and minority lawyers have won a majority of the department's promotions.

"We've made it abundantly clear that we welcome all people," says Kennedy, 57, who notes that the department has also made a point of broadening the definition of diversity to include the LGBT community and now includes four openly gay attorneys.

Kennedy firmly believes that creating a work environment where differences are valued and people are free to be themselves leads to better job performance and higher-quality legal work. Plus, he says, having a diverse legal staff "sends the right message" to the wider community and can only boost the company's public image and help build brand loyalty.

Along with building a more inclusive legal department, Kennedy has also tried to do his part to help promote diversity in the outside counsel world. One example: the department's ongoing effort to give more work to smaller women- and minority-owned law firms. Indeed, in 2011, the department spent roughly $2.3 million on legal services from nearly two dozen minority- or women-owned vendors, up from just $1.2 million in 2004.

At the same time, Kennedy and other department managers have been pressing the bigger firms they use to put more diverse lawyers, and especially more diverse partners, on American's matters. "We've been pounding them pretty hard," says Kennedy, who notes that the department regularly reviews billings from those firms to see who's doing the work.

Though Kennedy has seen some progress, he's quick to add that there's still a long way to go. "We try to send a clear consistent message," says Kennedy, and make sure they know that diversity is a factor in the decision making about who gets work. But so far that hasn't helped move the needle enough.

A common refrain from law firms, of course, is that there aren't enough good minority candidates out there to hire. Under Kennedy, American's in-house lawyers have been working to fix that problem.

Since 2005, it has been running a mentoring program for minority law students from Texas Wesleyan and Southern Methodist University. It also offers minority law students summer internships.

As Kennedy sees it, it's all about giving those students opportunities they otherwise might not get.

For students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not know any working lawyers, getting good mentoring or a good internship can be a life-changing experience, says Kennedy. "It opens their eyes to things that they haven't seen before," he adds, "and can make a world of difference to their success."

Elisa Garcia

General Counsel, Office Depot Inc.

Elisa Garcia has spent much of her legal career making diversity happen. As an in-house counsel for Philip Morris International in the mid-1990s, she was an energetic participant in a mentoring program for minority law students. Then, after shifting to the general counsel slot at Domino's Pizza Inc. a few years later, she helped launch a groundbreaking initiative to boost the pizza giant's minority franchisees.

"I've always believed that you've got to be aggressive," says Garcia, 55.

That said, Garcia recalls being pleasantly surprised when she took the helm of Office Depot's legal department in mid-2007. Almost half of the department's then 17 U.S.–based lawyers were women—a reflection, says Garcia, of the Boca Raton, Florida–based company's strong commitment to fostering diversity. "It's something that flows from the top," she says.

Garcia hasn't let up on that effort. Today, a little over five years after her arrival, women make up about 60 percent of Office Depot's legal team, and the department, which has stepped up its recruitment of both gay and minority attorneys, is more diverse. One recent hire: an African American woman and former Pace University law student whom Garcia had mentored back in her Philip Morris days.

Garcia firmly believes that having a broad mix of backgrounds and perspectives on the legal team has tangible benefits. "With diverse views, you get better decision making," she says. "I think it makes for better lawyering."

To help ensure that inclusiveness stays on the department's radar, Garcia notes that at the start of every year, she asks every in-house lawyer to come up with his or her own diversity-related project. The guidelines aren't strict. As Garcia notes, those initiatives can range from working on a pro bono matter for a social services group in the minority community to attending minority counsel association events or participating, as Garcia recently did, in a program put on by the LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

"We're trying to find a lot of ways to expose in-house lawyers to [diversity issues], so at least they're thinking about them," says Garcia.

Likewise, Garcia has pushed to put workplace diversity on the agenda of the outside firms who represent Office Depot. That effort began shortly after she became general counsel. "When I first met with firms, I'd ask if there were minority and women lawyers on our matters," recalls Garcia. "I don't think they knew what to make of it."

They soon discovered that Garcia definitely meant business, as three years ago Office Depot began requiring outside firms to track the number of hours that women, minority, and LGBT attorneys work on its matters. Those numbers are submitted on a monthly basis, along with firms' legal bills. Garcia reviews those numbers annually, and sends a letter grade to every firm based on their performance.

While she has generally been willing to give firms a few years' leeway to improve their marks, Garcia is now looking for measurable progress. And firms that haven't gotten serious about diversity may well find themselves losing work. "We've tracked it for three years, so next year will be the test," she says.