Friday is Juneteenth. Largely recognized by the African American community, the day celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.

On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told the enslaved they were free—two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Texas was a part of the Confederacy, so the message delivery on freeing slaves was believed to be thwarted on multiple occasions in those states.

Every June, cities across the country hold festivals celebrating African American history and culture. Growing up in Sacramento, California, my family and I would go to the Juneteenth festival at William Land Park for the talent shows and concerts on the grand stage, the soul food from restaurant vendors, the pieces of history from booths about the Buffalo Soldiers to the black Gold Rush miners. That's just the main event that attracts thousands of people. During the week, there is also a parade, scholarship luncheon, formal ball and gospel event.

Though it could be a weeklong party for some, others can't ignore what happened after slavery with Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the civil rights movement and in the present with the recent police and racially motivated killings of unarmed black men and women. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the current civil unrest has brought Juneteenth to the mainstream with companies such as Twitter, Nike and NFL publicly declaring it a paid holiday for all employees.

Even Big Law is observing Juneteenth. Many of the companies that chose to observe Juneteenth this year promise it's a permanent change, according to Hella Creative, a group of San Francisco-area creatives who started the Hella Juneteenth campaign to get companies on board to recognize the holiday. So far, the group said 200 companies will recognize Juneteeth.

Mastercard GC Tim Murphy, Eventbrite GC Julia Taylor and Adobe GC Dana Rao told Corporate Counsel why their companies are marking the holiday and how culture-based employee resource groups and groups focused on racial equality in the workplace helped push the decisions forward.

"The decision to make Juneteenth a company holiday was the result of important ongoing dialogue with our Black + Brite employee group and is just one step we are taking in order to make meaningful progress towards a globally diverse and inclusive company," Taylor told Corporate Counsel.

The pandemic has restrained the employee resource groups from bringing their holidays alive in the workplace. Companies have expressed that they want their employees to take advantage of Juneteenth by absorbing multimedia resources on anti-racism and black culture and engaging in civic activity.

Juneteenth also may open the conversation on the flexible holiday arrangement that would allow employees to choose what holidays they want to take off, mostly the ones not in the standard U.S. company calendar.

Is your company looking to give employees paid time off to observe more cultural and religious holidays to foster inclusivity? Please let me know at [email protected].

 

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It may be trite but it is true nonetheless—the tone is set from the top. If the now-charged eBay employees believed that their boss would not have desired or tolerated threats, harassment and cyber stalking, they may not have gone down the very dubious path that they are alleged to have gone down. They appear to have known from the allegations in the complaint that they needed to hide their misdeeds from eBay's in-house lawyers.

- Michelle Fang, chief legal officer at Turo, writes in a Corporate Counsel commentary piece about her time in-house at eBay and the recent federal cyberstalking allegations against six ex-employees titled Whatever. It. Takes. How eBay Lost Its Moral Compass

What's Happening

 

eBay In-House Alum Speak Out on Company Ethics

In a case where federal prosecutors have accused six former eBay employees of conspiring to terrorize a blogger and her husband that led to thinly veiled death threats, a bloody pig mask and prank deliveries of pornography magazines and insects, eBay GC Marie Oh Huber had to respond.

Along with the chief people officer Kristin Yetto, Huber sent a memo Monday to staffers that the allegations were "deeply troubling" and conflict with the San Jose, California-based e-commerce firm's cultural values.

"The actions of the former employees are completely unacceptable and simply do not align with who we are at eBay. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior, and the company has apologized to the affected individuals," Huber and Yetto wrote in the staff memo obtained by Corporate Counsel.

 

Legal and HR Leaders Team Up to Fight Racism

The Association of Corporate Counsel and Society for Human Resource Management are now partners ready to take on workplace racism.

The unprecedented partnership brings CLOs and chief human resource officers together to collaborate and examine workplace policies in an effort to create more inclusive workplaces.

"When it comes to the types of societal issues that corporations are facing, both looking within and looking out to how they can influence their communities, the two executives who are both most equipped to carry that forward would be the chief human resources officer and chief legal officer," ACC president and CEO Veta T. Richardson told Corporate Counsel. "That's why this alliance was such a natural one."

 

Uber Associate GC Talks Resilience

In our latest Legal Speak podcast, Uber Technologies associate GC Matt Wilson speaks to Corporate Counsel editor in chief Heather Nevitt about fostering resilience, well-being and psychological safety as a leader.

Wilson leads Uber's 90-member legal team across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"I don't think that resilience is something that we're born with," he said in the podcast episode. "For me at least, developing it has been a product of experience over time and the environment that I've been in. I've certainly learned, and I think a lot of us do, that the things that seemed huge and insurmountable when you're starting off in your career, actually generally blow over and sometimes don't matter in the general scheme of things."

Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards

 

Corporate Counsel's Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards awards deadline for submissions is July 8.

We are looking for general counsel and law firm partner applicants in the following categories:

Crisis Management: Industry – General Counsel Banking & Finance Insurance Transportation & Infrastructure Manufacturing & Chemicals Technology, Media & Telecom Retail & Consumer Goods

In-House & Law Firm Awards Innovative Leadership Thought Leadership Collaborative Leadership Women's Legal Awards General Counsel of the Year/Managing Partner of the Year Lifetime Achievement

If you know a general counsel or law firm partner who qualifies for a WIPL award, then please apply here.

On the Move

 

Former FBI GC James A. Baker is the new deputy GC at Twitter as the San Francisco-based social media company deals with heavy criticism from President Donald Trump over his tweets being given fact-checking labels.

Chas Rampenthal, the longtime GC at LegalZoom.com in Los Angeles, has stepped into another business-facing position at the online platform. Formerly GC of The Honest Company also in LA, Nicole Miller is now the new GC at LegalZoom.