Inclusion & Diversity

You belong at Seyfarth.

For us, "inclusion and diversity" are more than aspirational words. They are at the forefront of our firm’s client- and talent-centered culture. We drive our efforts through tangible action, continuous improvement, and constant learning. Our goal is to create a culture in which people can bring their authentic selves and unique experiences to the work we do every day. We do so for two simple yet powerful reasons: our people matter, and we excel when we cultivate belonging, inclusion, and diversity. 

We have long taken a strategic approach to strengthening the diversity of our workforce and cultivating inclusion. Our innovative programs—inside the firm and in partnership with our clients—help grow our population of attorneys from underrepresented groups, and advance their careers.

The past several years have brought greater strides in our inclusion and diversity efforts. Our Triad Mentoring Program, which blends professional development, skill building, mentoring, and sponsorship to helps us retain our attorneys from underrepresented groups, giving them the support, mentorship, and championship they need.  

Seyfarth Life emphasizes the relationship between business results and professional satisfaction, ensuring that Seyfarth personnel—including attorneys from underrepresented groups—can reach their highest levels of performance and career satisfaction.

These initiatives build on the foundation that earned us a Thomas L. Sager Award from the MCCA, and honors from organizations including the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Women in Law Empowerment Forum, and Working Mother magazine.

We focus on four key pillars. 

Inclusive Leadership

Cultivating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds can be authentic and belong requires culturally-fluent leaders who can lead, inspire, motivate, and develop diverse teams and interrupt bias. Our approach to inclusive leadership is to educate and empower leaders to honor and leverage diversity, grow their inclusion competencies, to measure our growth and success, and to hold one another accountable. Leaders must model the behavior change we desire to see and drive the organizational change necessary for inclusion and diversity.

Inclusive Talent Development

High performers and teams are built at every stage of the employee life cycle, from recruiting to promotion. Increasing diversity involves identifying talent in an inclusive way, and ensuring that we engage in developing that talent in ways that recognize and leverage the differences they bring to the table. At Seyfarth, we equip our talent to succeed through firmwide education programs that raise awareness and provide skills to targeted programs for diverse talent that address the unique hidden barriers professionals from underrepresented groups face. Our unique and groundbreaking Triad program blends mentoring, sponsorship, success strategies, and skill building in a yearlong program for high performing senior associates within 2-3 years of partnership eligibility. Similarly, our unique coaching program pairs associates with highly trained Partner Coaches to work on specific personal or career goals for a year.

Communities

Seyfarth is committed to partnering with the communities where we live and work, and with our clients on advancing inclusion and diversity in the legal profession. We support several national organizations focused on inclusion and diversity, as well as regional and local organizations in our offices. Our attorneys participate in writing amicus briefs and pro bono work in our communities and we engage all our professionals in community service.

Organizational Strategy, Systems, and Processes

Good intentions are meaningless without bold action. At Seyfarth, we constantly seek to evaluate what works and how we can do better. We know that it is not enough to provide education and awareness but we must also examine the systems and processes we use in the business and practice of law. As such, we look at our talent development, human resources, compensation, and other processes with an eye of mitigating undesired consequences and addressing cultural and diversity blind spots.