Legal departments’ efforts to use their clout to get law firms to hire and promote more women and minorities appear to be stalling, even as firms say they’re more committed than ever to diversity.

Former Meta and Coinbase legal-ops chief Akshay Verma now is chief operating officer of SpotDraft. (Courtesy photo)

“Do in-house departments still care about improving diversity in the legal profession? The answer is yes, they do. They absolutely do. I don’t think this has ever been a question of people not caring,” said Akshay Verma, a former legal-ops chief at Meta and Coinbase. “But not much has changed. Everyone talks a big game, and nothing has happened.”