Diversity

Bryan Cave has long valued diversity in the workplace. Differences bring richness to our professional experiences and enable us to better serve clients. This commitment to a diverse firm means we seek out the best legal minds, regardless of race, religion, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, perceived disability and other legally protected characteristics.

Diversity is especially critical in a global law firm where good lawyers develop a broad-based sensitivity by serving clients of many cultures and backgrounds. Our lawyers are either fluent or competent in nearly 30 languages, including American Sign Language, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Danish, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese, Ukrainian, Urdu and Yoruba.

Bryan Cave has a significant number of minority and female lawyers in leadership positions, and we have formal mentoring programs in place to help retain our diverse work force. We are, however, far from satisfied. Our profession as a whole must continue to make progress toward broader inclusion of the talents that women and minorities bring to the table.

Diversity Initiatives

Diversity is one of the five core values at Bryan Cave. We are committed to respect and equal opportunity for all of our lawyers and employees. But diversity is a value that needs to be lived, not just discussed. Toward that end, Bryan Cave has embarked on several diversity initiatives.

The Diversity Committee
The Diversity Committee, a standing subcommittee of the Executive Committee, focuses on diversity issues and helps coordinate the hiring and retention of diverse attorneys. The committee draws attorneys from throughout the firm to coordinate policies and activities on diversity issues, including those that affect lawyers of color, women lawyers, gay and lesbian lawyers, mentoring and professional and personal balance.

Flexible Work Schedule Policy
Part of retaining a diverse work force means understanding that the same schedule doesn’t always work for everyone. That is why Bryan Cave offers a flexible work schedule policy, when appropriate. In the past five years, the policy has been used by more than 30 lawyers who have remained on a partnership track.

Domestic Partner Benefits
Bryan Cave offers a domestic partner benefits policy as part of its overall effort to assure equal treatment for gay and lesbian lawyers. For the sake of ourselves and our clients, the firm also keeps current on the rapidly evolving laws concerning sexual orientation and maintains strong contacts with gay and lesbian law student associations.

The Diversity Dashboard
A big part of solving diversity problems is recognizing when you have them. To help, Bryan Cave has developed the Diversity Dashboard – a Web-based snapshot of the lawyers staffing each engagement. Represented in easy-to-understand graph form, the numbers can be broken down by sex, race and rank (partner, associate, etc.). The site is a customizable, real-time management tool that helps Bryan Cave think more critically about diversity in all its forms.

Support of Professional Activities and Associations
Bryan Cave supports attorney involvement in diverse professional activities and associations. The firm has served as host or sponsor for several meetings of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and the National Women in Law Firms and Women Corporate Counsel Conferences. The firm also supports individual attorneys’ efforts to invest in their communities.

Recruiting and Retention

Diversity within our ranks starts with proper recruiting. Bryan Cave ensures that our recruiting committees are diverse. We recruit at law schools with large minority populations, participate in minority clerkship programs, job fairs, conferences and workshops, and we actively recruit minorities through student organizations.
Once an attorney has joined us, we devote time and resources to retain him or her. A long-term view of our lawyers’ development has at its foundation a formal, firmwide mentoring program. All mentors are given guidance about diversity issues and are encouraged to talk about diversity with associates. Such working relationships with senior attorneys gives meaningful chances for informal feedback and discussion.

In addition, Bryan Cave offers new recruits job skills training to ensure everyone has the opportunity to develop professionally. We offer courses on effective writing, client service, business development, oral advocacy and teamwork. These programs benefit all attorneys.

As a final measure of how important diversity is to Bryan Cave, partners are assessed annually on their contributions to diversity, mentoring and overall associate development.