Gender: Female
Industry: Law
Age: Unknown
Location: Undisclosed

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The Diversity Manager

The post of the Diversity Manager is gaining importance in the legal workplace.  A flash survey conducted by Altman Weil, Inc. for 2007 reports that almost 50 percent of the firms that participated in the survey have a manager or director designated for promoting and maintaining diversity.  The survey also reported that almost 96 percent of the participating firms had a Diversity Committee.  The results show that the law firms are focusing diversity with more importance than in the previous years.

 The survey, which can be found at http://www.altmanwe il.com/dir_docs/resource/6a92c732-2430-4fdd-b895-9e4335e2e86 e_document.pdf shows that focusing on diversity is only a recent trend of the law firms.  Most of the diversity managers had been appointed within the last four years from this date.  Where lawyers were acting to promote diversity, it was found that the greatest number came from non-practicing lawyers, who were also partners of the firm.  In most cases, these were people who came from a background of legal issues.

So folks, that shows how the problem to comply with mandates on diversity is plaguing the minds of the law firms today.  And that’s another designation that one can work for in the law firms.

05-15-2007

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Mother mine

Mother’s day is a day I revere, as I adore my mother.  She worked without complaint just to see me through school.  She’d forgo lunch at work saving money just to buy me something new.  She gave up her own luxuries to afford me my whims and fancies.  I thank God that she’s still with me and I can take care of her.  Not all are so fortunate.

I admit that I do feel a bit outraged with all the commercialization of Mother’s Day, but on the other hand, the array of lovely gifts and novel ways marketed to please one’s mother proves that we, as a people, care for our mothers and love to see them smile.  It proves that in spite of all the digitization and fragmentation of our foci, we have managed as a nation to remain essentially human.

There has been a cheap popularity stunt a few days back by Salary.com that has tried to calculate the worth of a mother as a hybrid employee, without considering her social role.  I do not believe that the service of any mother upon this world can be calculated against dollars.  Even an attempt to do so is a folly that disrespects the sacrifices of motherhood.  I would like to end the blog today by citing one of my favorite poems:
 

M - O - T - H - E - R

"M" is for
the million things she gave me,

"O" means
only that she's growing old,

"T" is for
the tears she shed to save me,

"H" is for
her heart of purest gold;

"E" is for
her eyes, with love-light shining,

"R" means
right, and right she'll always be,

 

Put them all together,
they spell

"MOTHER,"

A word that means the
(entire) world to me.

 

-Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

And hope, that all of you have, and remember, the
blessings of our mothers who took such pain in bringing you into this world.

 

05-14-2007

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A little bit of everything

Hello, friends.  Here’s my weekly ramble:

Inmates are proven innocent by new evidence and taken off death row all the time.  A quick look at the Innocence Project’s website will bear out this fact.  No one is sure how many innocents have already been executed in this country before humanitarians have had opportunities to fight for them.

Given the system’s terrible weaknesses which result in wrongful convictions, one would think the death penalty would have been shelved for all time.  But there’s little chance of that happening anytime soon.  It seems nothing titillates the jaded sensibilities of some more than the prospect of death and the power to kill other humans.  A May 9 post on Sentencing Law and Policy reads, “Florida ready to get back to executions.”

And while the law recognizes that minors lack the faculties to qualify them for voting rights—among other legal rights—states continue to mete out life sentences without parole for crimes committed by juveniles.  Check out Frontline’s “When Kids Get Life” page to learn some chilling facts about the double standards of the system.

Speaking of kids, I’ll admit that I felt quite sad when I noticed a post entitled “I give up” by that kid who ran A Frolic of Her Own.  I used to like her blog, but the pressures of being an associate are apparently finally taking their toll on her.

Finally, after some “Shameless (and Baseless) Self-Promotion” (but not his), Victor Medina has finally returned to his Small Business and Solo Law Practice Blog, announcing “I’m back, baby!” on March 7 and then leaping straight into everyone’s favorite topic—check out his May 8 post entitled “Money, money, money.”

With that sweet note still ringing in my ears, let’s call it a day.  See you next week!

05-11-2007

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That is perfidious!

Today, I’d like to tell you about a recent event in the life of Judge Nancy Norelli as carried in the Charlotte Observer this week.  It’s about her reassignment.

Nancy Norelli was the first female lawyer to join Charlotte’s big law firm Helms, Mulliss & Johnston (it later became Smith, Helms, Mulliss & Moore).  That was way back in 1977.  In 1986, she broke the glass barrier to become a partner of the city’s major law firms – Kennedy, Covington, Lobdell & Hickman.

Later she opened and ran her own law firm, and was also elected to head the Mecklenburg County Bar, a rare honor for a woman lawyer.  In 2000, she became a judge.

She was recently removed from the criminal court and assigned to adjudicate upon child custody, child support, and divorce cases.  The reason?  As explained by Chief District Judge Fritz Mercer, complaints by the police against the rulings of Norelli influenced him to move her to family court from the criminal court.

Norelli, 56, stood by her decisions and said she does her job as the police do theirs.  She said that she acts according to law and puts her heart in her work in the courtroom.

There is no allegation of misconduct against her from any quarters, and Paul Ross, the executive director of the N.C. Judicial Standards commission reported that Norelli has never been disciplined for misconduct in her years as a judge.

There is no allegation of corruption.

There is nothing against her except the fact that some police officers did not see eye to eye with her on some of her rulings.  I thought the system took into account such situations, and that is why the founding fathers of our constitution separated the executive from the judiciary, and the judiciary from the legislative.  Democracy is assured through the system of checks and balances.  Democracy expects the police to submit the case, and the judge to decide on it.

It is quite surprising that the Chief Judge acted on the opinion of police officers that Norelli did not know the law.  Given her track record of competence and honesty, that is hard to believe.  Her only offence seems that she is a trailblazer against the medieval mindset.  Should people like her be left to do their work or should they worry after politics and vested interest groups?

05-10-2007

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It’s literally lateral!!

Well, being lateral is the rage nowadays.  Lateral Marketing fuels innovations, lateral thinking fuels the creative process, and for the law firms lateral recruitment seems to be doing the trick.

Major, Lindsey & Africa, published their new research report on May 1, 2007.  The report, titled “Lateral Partner Satisfaction: A Decade of Perspective,” surveyed 5,622 law firm partners who had all shifted laterally in the past years.  From about 1,000 responses received it was found that more often people look for support than money when deciding to make a lateral shift in employment.  The factors that were found most important in the decision to shift laterally were:

-The reputation and culture of the firm
-The personality and style of partners
-The strength of the management of the firm
-The overall financial health of the firm
-The ability of the firm to support the practice of the lateral

In contrast to these, compensation structure, existing client base, and national/international presence of the firm, took a back seat as deciding factors for lateral shift in employment.

The survey also found among other interesting things that men and not women usually led group shifts.  So, that’s one reason to promote women to the top posts, they know where their loyalties lie.  And, by the way, the survey found that women tended to be more dissatisfied after making lateral shifts.  It figures.  People who favor stability tend to suffer after that lateral shift.  But there are no studies that say women tend to be dissatisfied after being shifted vertically upward.

05-09-2007

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