When asked to define the past year in diversity and inclusion at Barnes & Thornburg, the word "transformative" surfaced as the theme for our 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report. In the publication's opening letter, Director of Diversity, Professional Development and Inclusion Dawn R. Rosemond and Firm Managing Partner Robert Grand celebrate some of the key transformative moments for our firm in 2018.
Over the past 12 months the firm saw marked growth of women and minority representation in our partnership ranks. To better care for our talent, we created a new professional development program that includes a deliberate sponsorship to make sure that our teammates don’t fall through the cracks. We also launched a new breed of firm-wide diversity and inclusion training, utilizing an in-person, market-by-market approach to foster interaction and elevate consciousness, all to the end of better tackling the dangers of implicit bias. And then there was the overhaul of our parental leave benefits policy, a “one for all” policy that affords all of our talent 16 weeks of paid leave at 100% pay, inclusive of adoptions and non-lawyer professionals.
There is a common thread throughout all that we were able to accomplish: each stride made inures to the benefit of our core and reflects a deliberate decision by our leadership to invest in change that goes well beyond a mere “box check” – and will endure.
We hope you enjoy this journey of reflection with us and that you reach out to unpack and learn more about anything you see, who we are, our platform and where we’re going from here.
