Communities
As part of our effort to enhance our communities, we actively build relationships through personal, professional, and social networks; and we demonstrate and support the work of others to drive change in the profession.
Seyfarth Comunidad. We believe a key strategy for advancing diversity in the legal profession is the use of “competitive collaboration”—cooperative arrangements in which we work side-by-side with other law firms to serve our clients and help them advance their own diversity goals. Over the years, we have routinely partnered with women and racially underrepresented owned firms—for both portfolio work and local counsel—with these objectives in mind. To sustain these relationships and to bring more firms into partnership with us, we have now developed a preferred network we call Seyfarth Comunidad. Through this network, we have established formal joint partnerships with women and racially underrepresented owned firms. We have worked with our network firms over many years and have chosen them for the quality of their counsel. We welcome firms who come recommended by our clients to become a part of our network, and we partner with our clients to vet firms for potential new relationships. This network allows us to draw from a diverse and exceptionally talented pool to serve our clients on a portfolio basis, and help clients fill need for local counsel.
Affinity Bar and Legal Diversity Organization Relationships. Each year, Seyfarth partners and supports more than 60 national, regional, and local organizations dedicated to inclusion and diversity for the legal profession. We financially support and actively lead these efforts to uplift our attorneys through organizational outreach and training programs.
Thought Leadership. Our executive leaders and diversity leaders are sought-after panelists and authors on issues and solutions surrounding legal diversity and inclusion. Our attorneys are often featured speakers at industry conferences on substantive legal, business of law, and diversity-related topics. Our attorneys write articles for both national and firm-generated outlets about representation of women in law firm leadership, the role of lawyers in marriage equality, the need for employers to move beyond mere ADA compliance, the challenges of intersectionality in our industry, how lawyers can help close the justice gap, and how to bring design thinking into the diversity challenge.
Pro Bono Partnerships. Collaborative firm efforts provide pro bono legal services and support for community organizations with diverse constituents.