Barnes & Thornburg is excited to announce its participation in Diversity Lab’s 2024 Moments to Movements Hackathon, a shark-tank-style pitch competition for solving some of the most challenging diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues facing the legal industry.
Led by New Jersey partner Kaitlyn E. Stone, Barnes & Thornburg and Scholastica Baker, senior litigation counsel at McDonald’s Corporation, partnered together to join more than 100 law firm professionals, legal department leaders and industry experts to collaborate, ideate and offer sustainable and scalable solutions to this year’s challenges:
- How can we defend and fortify DEI across the profession and in each organization to withstand downturns, leadership changes, anti-DEI rhetoric and other headwinds?
- How can we improve workplace practices and processes to ensure fair and equal access to high-quality work, sponsors and business/clients to level the playing field for all talent, including historically underrepresented lawyers?
From March to July 2024, participants were divided into small teams and tasked with developing solutions to address one of the two challenges. Stone and her team hacked the first challenge, the “community” challenge.
“It was a pleasure working with Baker of McDonald’s Corporation and the rest of our incredibly talented and dedicated team over the last several months to develop a proposed solution seeking to ensure that the momentum, progress of, and commitment to DEI principles continues,” said Stone. “It is imperative to create a space for such work to happen and flourish, which was the backbone of our pitch.”
On July 11, Stone and her team pitched their proposed solution to an elite panel of judges that included: Sharifa Anderson (Fannie Mae), Inga Goldbard (Google Ventures), Daniel Yi (Harvard Law School), Jim Chosy (U.S. Bank), Mo Cowan (Devoted Health, Inc.), Ruth Umoh (Fortune & RaceAhead), Natalie Kernisant (Morrison & Forester), Vernā Meyers (Vernā Meyers Company) and Gina Passerella (ALM Global) and to an audience of more than 200 leaders at New York University School of Law. The pitches were evaluated on their potential for impact, ease of adoption, and progress measurement. Teams were awarded extra points by incorporating remote working, accessibility, and law firm and legal department collaboration into their solutions.
“As a long-time participant of Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule, a program created from the organization’s 2016 Women in Law Hackathon, we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to collaborate with other industry professionals and leaders to ensure that DEI continues to be activated despite the challenges outlined in this year’s program, said Dawn R. Rosemond, firm diversity partner. “We look forward to continuing to partner with Diversity Lab and our clients to amplify our commitment and work in this area.”
The winning ideas will be further developed by Diversity Lab and piloted with the participating law firms and legal departments. Although not designated as the overall winning pitch for the “community” challenge, Diversity Lab has elected to greenlight a key aspect of the team’s pitch – AI-driven listening sessions by which Diversity Lab aims to capture real-time insights from the community and share outcomes.
“Our team is thrilled that Diversity Lab shares our enthusiasm for leveraging this technology to support and further the organization’s initiatives, and we could not be happier that our pitch will be implemented and have real-world impact,” said Stone.
In addition to announcing the winning pitches, on June 11 Diversity Lab also announced that Stone had been named as one of only two Outstanding Hackers, out of the more than 100 hackers involved in this year’s Hackathon, for her above-and-beyond work and dedication to the project.
“It is an honor to be named an Outstanding Hacker, but the most meaningful piece of this experience, for me, was coming together with such an excellent team of thoughtful and passionate professionals to pitch an idea we truly believe in, and which is laser-focused on community-building in support of ongoing DEI-related efforts,” said Stone.
About Diversity Lab
Diversity Lab is an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in law. Experimental ideas are created through hackathons and piloted in collaboration with more than 300 top law firms and legal departments across the country. Diversity Lab leverages data, behavioral science, design thinking, and technology to further develop and test ideas, measure results, and share lessons learned. For more details, visit www.diversitylab.com.
With more than 800 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from offices in Atlanta, Boston, California, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, South Florida, Texas, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com.
