Our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging began the first day Bob Major opened the doors of MLA in 1982. I personally believe it permeates much of what we do, even if it often feels like we haven’t made much progress. Three years ago our Leadership team made constantly improving diversity, inclusion and belonging a core value of our company because we know this challenge requires perpetual attention to all aspects of what it means to support everyone in being their most authentic self at work.
We were reminded again how much work is left to be done on May 25, 2020, and again last night when another terrible tragedy connected to racism came across the news. The tragic events starting last summer and continuing through today have reinvigorated our desire to help in some way. We so desperately want to reduce the persistent racism we continue to see around us and to address a lack of opportunity and belonging that many people of color have felt for so long. Many of our colleagues have asked how they can help in their communities. Some have asked how they can help at work as well.
As the President of MLA and AP, I have been unsure how to respond to these recurring crises and upheaval on behalf of our company. I am certain some of you want me to be more vocal about what is going on in the world (that challenge is bigger given I can’t visit you in person). Others have told me that companies shouldn’t inject themselves directly into the issues beyond making sure that company polices actually improve diversity, belonging and inclusion. I suspect some of you are somewhere in between these two viewpoints. I know everyone wants a supportive and welcoming work place environment.
We are a small, privately held company. We would be the equivalent of a small regional law firm, not even in the AmLaw 250 if we counted recruiters as lawyers. But we know that the number of recruiters and the amount of revenue we generate doesn’t tell the whole story. We remind ourselves regularly that we hold a truly unique position in the legal world and we are bold enough in that belief to claim to change lives and companies. I believe that means we are called to make good on our promise to remake an entire industry when it comes to diversity, inclusion and belonging. I also know that this important work has a long way to go, inside and outside of MLA.
But these arguably grandiose ambitions do not mean that we are not also, indeed mostly, a business. Businesses need to make a reasonable profit for their owners, provide opportunity in all its forms for all of their employees, and grow if they are to survive (and we aspire to much more than survival). Making this tension even more complex, it appears to me that the sands of what it means to be a good citizen, to help each other and to eliminate racism and discrimination at work, shift almost daily. Words and phrases that were common place as recently as six months ago are now widely understood to be insensitive and perhaps even discriminatory today. The din from outside our company walls gets louder as well.
Furthermore, we live in a politically divided world. Even in our company, where I suspect the vast majority of our employees voted similarly in the last US national election, political division exists. I believe many of us are uncertain to what extent and/or what form these issues should become part of work. Adding to political division, we also face generational, geographic and cultural differences which can further divide us.
Therefore, we will do our best to balance the desires of those who want work to play a more direct role in improving the lives of everyone of our colleagues, and those who want to make their colleagues feel welcome and more included in a less confrontational way. That effort will take time and thoughtfulness by all of us. Let me be clear: under no circumstances will racist, bullying, discriminatory or other behavior that impairs our employees’ sense of inclusion and belonging be tolerated. That has been true since our founding. We will remain vigilant about enforcing this behavior requirement. Indeed, these are table stakes for working here.
However, we will also do more than prohibit inappropriate behavior. Starting today, we are kicking off what we are calling the Allies for Inclusion and Belonging initiative. This initiative will be multi-dimensional and rolled out in several different ways over the coming months. The goal is to make everyone feel an increased sense of belonging and inclusion and to build on everyone’s desire to help make our work place better overall. We hope to continue to improve our culture and to increase the frequency and quality of the conversations between us. The most successful people want to grow and learn over their entire lives, and I believe this is another chance for us to grow and learn about how to be better teammates.
Over the next few weeks Jasmine will spell out how this initiative will begin and how you can be an Ally for Inclusion and Belonging in your sphere of influence. We have heard your feedback around shorter messages, so we will be breaking down new initiatives like this one into more digestible chunks to facilitate engagement and comprehension. I tried to make today’s kick off message as short as possible, but I felt every concept here was vital to understanding the very important why on this important concept. Our next step is how.
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