Integrating Diversity: Farella Braun + Martel Hosts Clorox Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 1L Scholars

Farella Braun + Martel hosted The Clorox Company’s Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) 1L Scholars in its San Francisco office as a step toward its goal to integrate client diversity programs with its own. The Clorox LCLD Scholars and several in-house attorneys attended a four-hour program that began with a welcome and overview of Farella’s diversity programs by firm chairman Steve Lowenthal. Members of Farella’s Diversity Committee presented substantive areas of law including business litigation, intellectual property litigation, employment and business transactions. To prepare for the next stage of their career, the LCLD Scholars took part in mock interviews and heard a junior associate panel discuss the on-campus recruiting process, how to succeed in law school and the transition from summer associate to associate. Each of the Farella associate panelists also gave a brief summary of their favorite cases or transactions that they have worked on at Farella.

Over the last several years, Farella has evolved its Diversity Program to incorporate in-house counsel and create opportunities for its diverse attorneys to interact directly with in-house counsel that have demonstrated an interest in diversity. The firm expanded its Diversity Pipeline Internship Program to include in-house counsel by partnering with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s San Francisco Bay Area Chapter to host Speed Mentoring Receptions, in which current and past interns engage in one-on-one conversations with in-house attorneys from local companies, and by arranging field trips to visit the legal departments of local firm clients to receive a picture of the roles, responsibilities and career path of an in-house lawyer. Both of these efforts were generated through an earlier outreach interview program, and are highly sought after invitations among the firm’s in-house counsel clients.

Click here to learn more about Farella’s award winning Diversity Program.