After 28 years of practice, I left one of the nation’s 10 largest firms, along with associate Kate Legge and Jessica Mazzeo, my firm’s director of administration, to follow this path. Over two years later, having overcome many challenges, I am motivated to seek and share expert advice about the legal services procurement process. A constant hurdle for women- and minority-owned law firms is that legal services remain the last procurement frontier, an area in which many companies are still unreceptive to hiring minority- and women-owned providers. For most companies, legal services are often carved out of a supplier diversity program, which is often more equipped to find suppliers of pens rather than professional services.
In connection with writing this article, we received generous and sage advice, particularly from leaders of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). NAMWOLF is a nonprofit trade organization composed of highly rated diverse-owned law firms collaborating with corporations and public entities to increase diversity in the legal profession, which seeks to accomplish this objective by increasing corporate engagement of minority- and women-owned law firms.
