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Thursday, September 04, 2008

Law - "Big corporations touting the use of minority- and women-owned law firms"

Lynne Marek of The National Law Journal reported Wednesday on big corporations touting the use of minority- and women-owned law firms. The article begins:

E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. is once again pushing corporate America to use minority- and women-owned law firms, this time teaming with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to publish for the first time a list of such firms that the companies have used in the past.

The companies sent out a directory of the firms to about 100 in-house lawyers, including all members of the Chief Litigation Counsel Association, said Andrew Schaeffer, who is DuPont's managing counsel of operations and partnering in Wilmington, Del.

In April, they also launched a Web site, www.minorityandwomenlawfirms.com, with help from Sara Lee Corp. and General Motors Corp., that lists the firms by state with contact information. "Our experience is a lot of companies don't know where to begin," Schaeffer said.

Judges, juries and public officials are becoming more diverse, so companies benefit from using firms that offer a diverse set of lawyers who can identify with these decision-makers, said Tom Sager, DuPont's general counsel.

DuPont also sent the directories to its 50 primary law firms, encouraging them to consider working with the minority- and women-owned firms and to share the information with colleagues. DuPont largely paid for publication of the 300 directories and the creation of the Web site.

Here is the website mentioned above. Clicking on Indiana reveals three firms, all in Indianapolis. Surely there are additional diverse firms, particularly in NW Indiana.

Note: The link for DeLaney & DeLaney given by the site under Indiana firms is incorrect. It should read: www.delaneylaw.net.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 4, 2008 03:37 PM
Posted to General Law Related