1999: Charles Morgan, then general counsel of BellSouth Corp., aims to send a message to law firms with his “Diversity in the Workplace: A Statement of Principle.” He and other chief legal officers pledge that in distributing work to outside law firms, they will give significant weight to the firm’s commitment to promoting diversity in the workplace. More than 500 general counsel sign on.
2004: Out of what he described as frustration with slow progress of minorities in large firms, Roderick Palmore, who was then GC at Sara Lee Corp. and is now senior counsel at Dentons, issues “A Call to Action.” Signatories promise to try to give more work to firms that made strides in their diversity efforts, and say that they will “end or limit” relationships with firms that showed “a lack of meaningful interest in being diverse.”
