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DEI Considerations for In-House Counsel

By Pete Elliott, Indiana Commercial Court

While much of the legal community’s focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion revolves around what law firms are doing to draw talent from underrepresented populations, a recent article from the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today highlights the DEI efforts made by the author, Nicole Linda Kelsey, in her role as Chief Legal Officer of a public company.

Ms. Kelsey notes that her company has begun auditing its outside law firms to determine whether the firms had incorporated DEI efforts into their own practices. She emphasized that her company valued the benefits provided by law firms consisting of a diverse pool of attorneys. Assessment of a firm’s DEI practices would be an important consideration when choosing which outside counsel her company does business with going forward.

Ms. Kelsey then discusses the specific DEI projects she has spearheaded within her own company, such as joining in an amici curiae brief,  co-sponsoring a happy-hour event with her company’s LGBTQ+ employee affiliation group for PRIDE month, and running quarterly educational sessions through her team’s DEI Initiative. Finally, Ms. Kelsey outlines the outreach programs that she was able to lead as part of her company’s overall efforts and issues a call to action for lawyers to lead the DEI movement.

You can learn more about IndyBar’s own DEI efforts by going to the page here.

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