Companies are increasingly keen on conducting thorough audits, analyzing their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, board diversity, and socially conscious investments to evaluate risk and decide on necessary changes. This has led to a mounting demand for law firms skilled in navigating these areas, according to Jason Schwartz, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Schwartz, who leads a DEI taskforce at his firm, made his observations known to Bloomberg Law, emphasizing the considerable amount of work that corporate diversity programming entails. This is a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent dismantling of affirmative action.
A collaborative and risk-tolerant approach is currently essential to dealing with these issues. Various banks Schwartz has interacted with plan neither to overreact nor abandon their initiatives. Instead, they aim to continue improving their diversity and inclusion strategies while staying within legal bounds. “We don’t want this place to look like it did in 1950. We want to do it in a lawful way but we’re not going to run away from it,” Schwartz reflected.
The legal profession’s involvement in DEI has increased, and it’s intriguing to predict what’s next for the lawyers working behind the scenes on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
For a detailed view, read the full article on Above The Law.