One of only 13 firms to be recognized for taking meaningful and decisive action to promote diversity and inclusion at the leadership and practice group levels, Reed Smith was honored in two categories – business/finance/real estate; and regulatory practice.

The blueprint includes two main categories for law firms to track, measure, and benchmark their diversity and inclusion efforts at both the leadership and practice group levels: (1) current diversity representation target thresholds and year-over-year progress and (2) ongoing inclusion practices and activities, at both the leadership and practice group levels.

Diversity Lab and ChIPs measured firms on whether they met representation targets for three populations – 30 percent women, 15 percent racial and ethnic minorities, and five percent LGBTQ+ lawyers – in top leadership roles. They urge firms to invest in their diverse talent by actively monitoring their work activities and experiences, such as work allocation, leave, sponsorship, client pitches, and other critical development and advancement opportunities.

“Embracing a diverse and inclusive culture means constantly challenging your organization to take proactive measures that support the recruitment, retention, and advancement of historically underrepresented lawyers, and constantly measuring results against past performance as well as the performance of our peer firms. Using these metrics allows us to have honest conversations around the efficacy of certain initiatives, and to adjust to get the results we want,” said John Iino, Reed Smith’s Chief Diversity Officer. “We’d like to thank Diversity Lab and ChIPs for recognizing the strides we’ve made in pursuit of inclusion, and commend them for putting in place a program that combines both analytics to assess the current state of a firm’s diversity practices with activities to help firms put real action behind their intentions.”