Hi there,
While I’m on the topic of the need for more data and transparency in how legal is sourced (shocker, I know 🤷♂️ ), let’s talk about diversity in legal.
The data (as it usually does 🫣 ) speaks for itself.
Shannon Klinger, Chief Legal Officer at Moderna — and an industry champion for improving diversity, equity, and inclusion across the legal ecosystem — summed it up best in one of our recent conversations.
“I graduated from law school in 1996. When I graduated, 18% of all law firm partners were female, and at the end of 2020, 21% were female.
“If you go deeper from a diversity, equity, and inclusion perspective, in 2020, 9% of law firm partners were African American, and 2% identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It bothered me as a chief legal officer that we didn’t have a legal ecosystem that looked more like the communities where we lived and worked.”
That’s exactly why Shannon and others like her are such strong advocates of PERSUIT.
Although there’s so much more work to be done to get us to where we need to be, PERSUIT is proud to play a small part in the move towards a more diverse ecosystem of legal talent that represents the diversity of the communities in which we live and work.
Our platform enables this through features like our DEI module, enabling client-specific DEI questions, and empowering corporate teams to identify and invite NAMWOLF firms to the process.
Still, the marketplace is rife with misconceptions about NAMWOLF firms’ competitiveness in the corporate legal marketplace.
❌ “Can small firms actually win an RFP?”
❌ “Is it worth our resources to compete?”
❌ “Isn’t it just a race to the bottom? It always comes down to price.”
Our data shows that these misconceptions simply aren’t true.
✅ $32.7 million in RFP value has been awarded to NAMWOLF firms on PERSUIT to date (you can see which firms in our latest firm rankings report).
✅ Corporate teams using PERSUIT ran 200 RFPs with NAMWOLF firms in 2023
✅ 50 corporate legal departments are actively sourcing NAMWOLF firms through our platform every year
As I write this, my team is en route to continue the myth-busting and help empower NAMWOLF firms to win more work on PERSUIT at NAMWOLF’s Driving Diversity in Legal Conference in New Orleans.
They’ll be joined by NAMWOLF firm Nukk-Freeman Cerra’s Director of Marketing and Business Development, Chris Sisco, in a special presentation.
It’s designed specifically to help firms understand what it takes to run a successful RFP response program and how they can leverage AFAs and reverse auctions to win more work from corporate clients.
Give our team a shout at our Saturday session or stop by our booth and say “Hi!”.
They’ll be the ones in the pink suits. Just sayin’💪 .
Cheers,
Jim
P.S. Can’t make the conference? Here are some of our best resources on how corporate teams and their firms can help drive more diversity in the legal marketplace:
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