Haynes and Boone, LLP Director of Diversity and Inclusion Jennifer Reddien talked with Texas Lawyer about the importance of diversity and inclusion initiatives at firms and how they contribute to the bottom line.
Here is an excerpt:
How a diverse team benefits outcomes
Reddien: “I think it’s having diverse perspectives. Whether it’s geographic diversity, or gender, or whatever kind of diversity you might think of – people come from different places and different backgrounds, and so they may look at issues in a different way than someone who came from a different background than they did. … So you get all these perspectives together at once and you just have a lot more creativity than if you just have people of the same background in a room who may think the same way.
The importance of “inclusion” initiatives
Reddien: “We include allies with everything we do. … for instance, we have a working parents subcommittee. You don’t have to be a parent to be in that group. If you’re an ally and you support working parents, we want you to come and be a part of that group as well.”
“I also think with the inclusion piece there’s a huge part of it that’s not maybe formal, but taking people to lunch for instance, or asking someone to go play golf. Things like that are a little bit more informal ways to help people feel included. Things that happen outside the firm as well as inside the firm. There are things we can do formally, but there are also informally things that can be done–people can be educated on those things that they might not otherwise think about.” …
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