When a woman gives up an equity partnership at an ultra-prestigious law firm to care for her family, it's a bit unusual.

But when a man does it?

(Wait. Has a man ever done it?)

In case you're wondering, that's where Malachi Jones Jr. has been for the last three years. He stepped down as a partner at Williams & Connolly at the top of his game to be a stay-at-home dad for his two sons and to help his ailing parents, while his wife kept working as an FBI agent.

He rejoins Williams & Connolly today as the firm's inaugural chief diversity partner.

Plenty of other firms these days have added diversity officers or partners. But Williams & Connolly has taken it further.

Jones returns as an equity partner, devoting 100 percent of his time to leading the 330-lawyer firm's efforts to further increase diversity and inclusion through recruiting, retention and professional advancement.

Jenna GreeneIn other words, it's not an afterthought or something to squeeze in around a white collar or employment or commercial litigation practice. This is it. This is his whole job. And it sends a message that Williams & Connolly, where average profits per partner last year were around $1.6 million, is serious about diversity.

“This is a great opportunity to impact the firm, to shape it in the way the one case or one litigation win could never do,” Jones said in an interview.

Firm chairman Dane Butswinkas called diversity and inclusion “core values of our firm,” and said that the “recruitment and advancement of talented diverse lawyers better reflect who we want to be as a law firm and better enable us to meet the broad needs of our national client base. Malachi's skill and leadership will help ensure a continued and focused commitment to these core values.”

Jones is a Williams & Connolly-ite through and through. “I love this firm,” he said. He first came to the D.C.-based litigation powerhouse as a summer associate in 1995, and joined the firm in 1996 after he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. In 2000, he moved to the Justice Department to be a civil rights prosecutor, returning five years later in 2005.

Over the next 10 years, he made partner and defended clients facing criminal charges including a former technology company CEO, a former cabinet secretary, a former White House official and several professional athletes.

But by 2015, his parents were both in declining health. And his wife as a special agent must travel frequently and has little job flexibility. So Jones left Williams & Connolly.

Instead of taking depositions and first-chairing trials, he coached sports and volunteered at the school where his sons, who are now 8 and 10, attend.

“It was a great experience. I got much closer to the kids, and I know they really benefitted from the consistency—of me just being there every day when they got off the bus,” he said.

He was also able to help his parents as they struggled. Jones' father died last year and his mother died earlier this year.

When the opportunity arose to return to Williams & Connolly, he said yes.

That the firm looked to one of its own to fill the role of diversity partner is not surprising. With the exception of U.S. Supreme Court advocate Kannon Shanmugam in 2008 and tax expert Gerald Feffer in 1986, Williams & Connolly does not hire lateral partners—they grow them from their associate ranks.

They also (deliberately) have just one office in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C. Founder Edward Bennett Williams, who died in 1988, liked to say the firm has “an office wherever there's an airport.”

The result is an unusually tight-knit culture. Which also meant it would have been unusually difficult to bring in an outside consultant or lateral partner to spur efforts at diversity and inclusion. But Jones—a veteran of the firm's hiring committee and associate evaluation committee; a former board member of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law—is ideally suited for the job.

His strategic plan focuses on “the three Rs—recruiting, retention and rainmaking,” he said. “If you're successful at recruiting diverse students from law schools … and they make partner, that's a success story, but it's not the end of the story.”

Junior partners still have to grow their practices. Jones also aims to offer support for client pitches, business development and leadership roles within the firm.

For Jones, a key question is “Do diverse attorneys feel at home in the workplace?” he said. It's not just about numbers, but about building a deep connection. “Do people feel like they have a stake and a future in the firm? Are they welcome not just professionally, but personally?”

He added, “The other things will all fall into place if diverse attorneys feel like they belong to the firm.”

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