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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
DIVERSIFYING RECRUITING EFFORTS - Law firms all say they want to become more diverse, and many of them mean it, but their efforts (and, by extension, the efforts of their recruiters) to actually achieve that goal often lack the requisite intentionality, Law.com’s Justin Henry reports. Merle Vaughn, the national law firm diversity practice leader at Major, Lindsey & Africa, said ”not enough recruiters are actually making an effort to promote diverse candidates.” And part of the reason for that, she explained, is that too few firms are willing to alter their traditional recruitment approaches. “Firms need to see what they’re willing to do differently in their process to get a different result,” she said. “In order to be successful, they need to identify a specific opportunity and provide the recruiter with what the sell is for that opportunity in their firm.” Lloyd Freeman, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, added that an equitable workplace doesn’t end with developing a diverse pipeline of candidates. “There’s a difference between positioning yourself for a diverse candidate pool and actually looking at the diversity you’re actually able to achieve,” he said.
