Firm adopts Strategic Action Plan Focused on Tangible Diversity Results
Atlanta -May 11, 2004 – LAWFUEL – Kilpatrick Stockton announced another major step in its longstanding commitment to achieving meaningful diversity within its workplace. The firm’s Executive Committee recently adopted a multi-year “Strategic Action Plan for Implementing Diversity Commitment” (SAP), following a year-long assessment and planning process with the firm’s Diversity Council.
The SAP was introduced at the firm’s recent Partners’ Retreat and is now operational with formal launch activities scheduled for this summer.
Several of the SAP’s “action steps” commenced in advance of its formal adoption. These include a RFP to professional diversity consulting firms to lead Kilpatrick Stockton’s firm-wide diversity awareness training program. The firm also has released its provocative diversity-focused brochure, “Diversity Matters”, which echoes the underlying thematic strategy of the SAP.
“We want our clients, our employees, our suppliers, our communities – and anyone who works with or for us – to know that diversity matters at Kilpatrick Stockton for all of the reasons that it should,” said Bill Brewster, Kilpatrick Stockton Managing Partner. “We are justifiably pleased with the accomplishments the SAP and the new brochure represent, and with our legacy as a leader in inclusiveness and diversity. However, the real work is ongoing. The SAP signifies that we are committed to doing that work, systematically and over the long term.”
Principal initiatives of the SAP include structural and procedural improvements that solidify diversity as a core value of the firm; strategic mentoring programs at all levels; “success model” career and professional development as retention and recruitment strategies; as well as proactive approaches to diversity hiring. The SAP includes measures for assessing and refining its specific action steps against the broader objectives of the initiatives they target. It will be both the firm’s compass and driving force to achieve meaningful and sustainable improvements in the firm’s diversity profile.
“To achieve real diversity results within the law firm environment, management must be strategic as well as motivated in order to succeed. If diversity goals are not aligned with day-to-day business objectives and strategies, the chances of meaningful and sustainable success are slim,” said Randy Eaddy, Diversity Council Chair. “Our Executive Committee recognized those critical realities, and under Bill’s stewardship, the Committee members produced a clear-eyed, hardnosed, strategic plan that gives us the best chance for such success.”
The announcement of the Strategic Action Plan is the most recent development in Kilpatrick Stockton’s diversity initiatives. In 2002, the firm officially established its Diversity Action Program, which created the Diversity Council and its Attorney and Staff Diversity Teams, and empowered the Council to address diversity concerns throughout the firm and to develop the SAP with the Executive Committee. Later that year, the firm created a manager position for the Diversity Action Program to help support and drive the Diversity Council’s agenda. It also established at that time a separate operating budget for the Council in order to increase its functional independence.
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP is a full-service international law firm with more than 450 attorneys in eight offices across the globe: Atlanta and Augusta, GA; Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, D.C.; London, England; and Stockholm, Sweden.
