The message has been heard loud and clear. That is, if the number of people reading our story today about 170 general counsel warning law firms to diversify or lose business is any indication, law firms are reading every word.

The lack of diversity in the legal industry has been a pervasive problem for decades and discussions of how to rectify the problem have grown more intense over the past few years … and, for that matter, over the past few hours. The New York Times published a piece Sunday afternoon highlighting the lack of diversity in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s new partner class as emblematic of a broader problem in Big Law. And leaders of legal departments in some of the world’s largest companies responded with a pact to direct work away from firms that don’t improve those numbers.