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Minority Counsel ProgramMinority Counsel Program: For Our Mutual
Benefit For private practitioners, the need to develop business can be a daunting prospect. For lawyers in regional law firms, business development can prove especially challenging. After all, with an increasingly global economy and technologically-enhanced communication systems that make it easier for clients and lawyers to work with each other anywhere in the world, many corporate clients are curtailing the number of law firms that they use. Others, relying upon pre-existing relationships, find that in the aftermath of law firm mergers, they are sending much of their legal work to the larger national, or even international, mega-law firms. With more firms having offices in multiple cities, the opportunities to refer matters and the need for local counsel are decreasing, especially in smaller cities. It’s a reality of today’s legal profession that confronts many lawyers and can leave the lawyer in a regional or midsize firm struggling to develop business. The Program brings together minority lawyers interested in handling legal matters for large corporate clients and corporate counsel interested in retaining minority lawyers as outside counsel. Meeting twice a year, the Program promotes the development of mutually rewarding business relationships that benefit both the minority lawyers and the corporate clients. For Clarence, it seemed like simple common sense to take advantage of what this Program had to offer. Through the Program, Clarence found himself interacting with lawyers from corporations doing business across the country and around the world. Indeed, not only was he able to market his practice and his firm to prospective new clients, he discovered that he also was able to do so with a number of existing clients by bringing himself and his firm to the forefront of their consciousness at Program meetings. Vic Waye, the Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Sodexho, Inc., is another corporate counsel whom Clarence has gotten to know through the Program. Vic first learned about the Program through his General Counsel. Since Sodexho is committed to supporting diversity through its Equal Opportunities Initiatives and its own Office of Employment Rights, Vic felt attendance at and support of the Program was a natural extension of his corporate and professional duty. Consequently, Vic has been a strong supporter of the Program since its inception, making time in his schedule to attend meetings and participate in the Program. When, on occasion, he finds himself unable to attend a meeting, he doesn’t hesitate to send someone else from Sodexho to make sure that the company is an active participant. As he is quick to attest, the Program provides Sodexho an opportunity to meet capable minority lawyers whose services Sodexho would feel confidant using -- lawyers like Clarence. For Clarence and other lawyers like him, participation in the Program is an investment in his own and his firm’s future. Through the Program, Clarence is building relationships with in-house counsel and strengthening their collective efforts to promote further opportunities for diversity. Through Program activities—the networking breakfasts and lunches, panels and breakout sessions, and the Mystery Networking Events—Clarence has experienced firsthand the way the Program facilitates in-house and outside counsel getting to know one another in a relaxed and enjoyable manner while they break down institutional barriers that prevent minority lawyers and corporate clients from accomplishing their mutual diversity goals. Together, Clarence, Donna, and Vic are changing the way corporate legal needs are served and bringing the goal of diversity within the legal profession a little closer to reality. The ABA Minority Counsel Program is providing the opportunity. Clarence, Donna, and Vic are clever enough to seize it.
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Clarence
Risin understands. Clarence is a shareholder in the Knoxville, Tennessee,
office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, a
325-attorney firm. Like many lawyers who work for regional law firms,
Clarence has found it a challenge to attract business from large
corporations. That is why he joined the ABA’s Minority Counsel
Program (Program) and has become a regular attendee at the Program’s
meetings.
One
corporate counsel who got to know Clarence through the Program was
Donna Crosswhite. An attorney at Sprint, Donna is also a regular
attendee at Program meetings. For Donna, the Program is an excellent
and effective vehicle for meeting and getting to know experienced
and diverse attorneys whom she can call. Indeed, she finds it a
particular benefit to be able to meet other attorneys who work in
her same area of practice and who share their strategies for dealing
with the various issues that arise in their practice. According
to Donna, familiarity with these attorneys through participation
in the Program provides her with a quick and ready reference to
minority attorneys, like Clarence, when matters arise that require
the assistance of outside counsel. This familiarity allows her to
refer work with confidence. That is why, through the Program, Donna
and Clarence faithfully stay in touch, looking for opportunities
where Sprint might need Clarence and his firm’s services and
they might work together.
After
meeting Vic through the Program, Clarence used the access he had
gained to arrange a personal visit to Vic’s office where he
met with Vic and his staff . . . and left representing Sodexho in
three labor and litigation matters.