January 2008
ATTRACTING & RETAINING
TALENTED & DIVERSE ATTORNEYS
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What efforts are large firms making to attract and retain talented and diverse attorneys? In recent months Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton made some major changes when it created two new positions: Chief Talent Officer and Manager of Diversity & Inclusion. Until now, neither position existed – and recognition of the need for the position speaks volumes for the firm's commitment to its human capital and to diversity. "Talent management and diversity are two of the firm's top priorities," commented Guy Halgren, Chairman of the firm. "We need, and our clients demand, a team of attorneys that is the best of the brightest and is as diverse as the world in which we practice."
Bob Neufeld couldn't agree more. As the Chief Talent Officer, he leads all of the functions that affect the associate lifecycle: recruiting, performance and development, diversity and inclusion, and direct practice group support. "The legal industry faces increasingly complex challenges, all of which are directly or indirectly related to its success in attracting and leading our people," said Neufeld. "It is important that each of the firm's functions is performed at its highest possible level, but they can only go so far on their own. They can reach their highest effectiveness only if they think and operate together. Talent management's integrated approach is relatively new to law firms, but it brings a variety of new ideas and strategies that I believe will position Sheppard as a leader in these areas."
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Just a few months after Neufeld's appointment, Carol Ross-Burnett joined Sheppard Mullin as its first Manager of Diversity and Inclusion. Ross-Burnett has firm-wide responsibility for managing existing internal and external diversity initiatives and for developing new ones. She spent nearly two decades at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles before leaving to expand her own diversity consulting practice several years ago. Her responsibilities as Assistant Dean of Career Services and Multicultural Affairs at Loyola included helping law students of color and others from historically underrepresented groups to achieve success in spite of the unique challenges they faced in law school, the recruiting process and the legal workplace. Ross-Burnett also served two years as co-chair of NALP's diversity committee, four years as a liaison to the ABA Commission on Minorities (now the Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity), and one year with the State Bar of California Committee on Legal Professionals with Disabilities. "The fact that Sheppard Mullin's leadership understands that diversity must be strategically imbedded in the business of the firm and not viewed as a separate, standalone function makes my job much easier and helped persuade me to accept the position," says Ross-Burnett. "Along with that, it was encouraging to know that the firm already had women, people of color and openly gay partners at the highest levels of firm management."
 One such partner is Dianne Baquet Smith (pictured), Diversity Committee Chair and Labor & Employment partner. "Dianne is an African American woman who is an awesome role model for any associate, but especially for women and associates of color," says Ross-Burnett. "She has been very committed to moving the firm forward in the area of diversity and has been proactively doing so for many years, along with maintaining a successful, full-time practice." Established in the early 1990's, the firm's Diversity Committee consists of representatives from Firm leadership and each of Sheppard's nine U.S. offices. Now poised to greatly expand its diversity efforts, Smith is excited that the firm has a professional diversity manager to help accomplish its goals.
"I'm also pleased that our diversity efforts include the opportunity for Sheppard's associates to become involved and to provide leadership," said Smith. "Along with special events, regular outreach and participation in diversity programs, we are open to and encourage our associates and partners to actively engage in other diversity-related opportunities that present themselves or that we seek out," said Smith. And Sheppard's lawyers are stepping up to the plate. Associate Norma Garcia Guillen is the incoming president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County, and Joanna Frazier is immediate past president of the Queen's Bench women's bar association in San Francisco.
Neufeld, Ross-Burnett and Smith are collaborating on building an inclusive process that will engage lawyers and staff firm-wide. As the firm builds on its existing commitment and ventures into new territory, Sheppard Mullin hopes to be a leader in the area of diversity that many will follow in the years to come.
JANUARY
Hispanic National Bar Association - Iberoamerican Congress on International Law, Business and Corporate Social Responsibility - Mexico City, Mexico -
1/27 - 1/30
FEBRUARY
American Bar Association - Midyear Meeting - Los Angeles - 2/6 - 2/12
MARCH
National Bar Association - Thirteenth Annual Small Firms
& Solo Practitioners' Division Conference - Costa Rica 3/12 - 3/16
Hispanic National Bar Association - Mid Year Conference & National Moot (pdf) - New York, NY 3/13 - 3/15
American Bar Association - Minority Counsel Program Spring Meeting - Newark, NJ - 3/27 - 3/28
APRIL
Chicago Bar Association - CLE in South Africa - Cape Town & Johannesburg - 4/3 4/10
National Native American Bar Association/Federal Bar Association Indian Law Conference - Albuquerque, NM - for info contact Kristus M. Ratliff at 703-682-7009.
ABA Young Lawyers Division Summit - Diversity: The Next Generation, Washington, DC -4/17 |
CMCP SUCCESS STORIES SPOTLIGHT ON:
ERICKA CURLS BARTLING
FOUNDER OF
CURLS BARTLING P.C.
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Ericks Curls Bartling
Founder -
Curls Bartling P.C.
Just a year out of law school at Washington University in St. Louis, Ericka Curls Bartling found herself in an interesting position: three law firms were aggressively courting her, all with very different practices. The first firm had a personal injury practice; the second firm a corporate and labor law practice; and the third firm offered Ericka a labor and employment practice. Ericka, who had been practicing law at the National Labor Relations Board in Missouri, was intrigued and she seized her first entrepreneurial opportunity: with full disclosures to each firm, she began contracting herself out to all three firms at once. "I quickly knew that personal injury was not a good fit for me," Ericka says now. "And employment law was much too emotional. People had a hard time seeing the difference between what may seem unfair or unkind and what was actually unlawful. But I really liked the corporate work – I liked being a legal advisor to businesses, getting in there and understanding my clients' business needs and figuring out how to get them where they wanted to be."
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In 1996, Ericka moved to California, stopping first in Los Angeles, to work with an uncle whose firm had a diverse corporate, entertainment and public finance practice. She was lured to San Francisco by an offer to serve as General Counsel for an asset management firm, for which she reviewed all business, vendor and marketing contracts as well as investment advisor activities for compliance with state and federal securities regulations. And then, while on maternity leave, Ericka's uncle passed away. Ericka suddenly began receiving urgent calls from her uncle's paralegal and partners asking for her help, as many of their public finance clients were in the middle of deals. Initially, Ericka only intended to help close the deals. But once again opportunity knocked and she found herself being courted – this time by the clients she had helped who wanted Ericka to become their new attorney. Recognizing the demand for someone with her unique experience and skills, Ericka started her own firm practicing corporate law and public finance. Ericka later partnered with Gerald Niesar (co-author of California Limited Liability Company Forms and Practice Manual - the first treatise on California LLCs) to form the firm Niesar Curls Bartling LLP in San Francisco. As managing partner of Niesar Curls Bartling, Ericka spent her time doing mostly mergers and acquisitions and working as co-bond counsel on public financings.
Wanting the flexibility to again focus on a wide range of corporate and municipal finance matters, in mid-2007, Ericka again struck out on her own, founding Curls Bartling P.C. Ericka structures, negotiates and prepares, among other things, Strategic Alliance & Joint Venture Agreements; Licensing and Technology Agreements; Consulting, Vendor and Service Agreements; Commercial Contracts; Financing Agreements; Merger, Stock and/or Asset Purchase Agreements; and Operating and Partnership Agreements. She also acts as disclosure and co-bond counsel in both tax‑exempt and taxable municipal finance transactions, where she reviews and prepares indentures of trust, bond purchase agreements, regulatory agreements, official statements and closing documents.
Newly on her own again, Ericka has met a number of her clients through CMCP. In 2004, Ericka interviewed with Kaiser Permanente thorough CMCP's Corporate Connections. Ericka kept in touch with those she met at Kaiser over the years, and in 2007 she began working for Kaiser's procurement and supply team. Likewise, Ericka met her client, Peralta Community College District, through CMCP.
Ericka's clients range from large corporations and public entities to small start up firms and non-profits. And when asked what it pleases her most to hear from a client, Ericka laughs and says, "Well, I've had more than one client tell me I'm a 'ray of sunshine.' I don’t know that I am that ‘sunny’, but I definitely think that some people have a negative impression about attorneys and what working with us will be like. I like hearing that I was successful at putting my clients at ease and that they enjoyed both the work product and our interactions.” “Actually," Ericka smiles, "several clients contact me pretty frequently not because they need legal help so much as they just want my input. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that I help my clients realize their goals, and that they value my advice."
The next time you see Ericka at a CMCP event, be sure to congratulate her on her new venture!
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