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Diversity Initiative Honorees
2015

Cadwalader, Wickersham

& Taft

By LeN MaNIace

THe ProBlem Wasn’T
attracting promising female
attorneys to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft—more
than 60 percent of the firm’s incoming attorneys in
recent years have been women.
The problem was keeping them.
“We were seeing a lot women coming in and being
trained up but leaving the firm before they even make
the run for partner,” said Kathy Chin, a Cadwalader
partner and a leader in the firm’s diversity effort. it’s

a problem, she said, that is common to many law
firms.
The attorneys gave various reasons for leaving,
but Chin said she believed advancement—or more
precisely, a lack of advancement—figured into it. “if
you are a woman or a person of color, and you look
at the partnership ranks at all the big firms and you
don’t see too many people who look like you, you
wonder what your chances are.”

Along with it being the right thing to do, develop-
ing a more successful approach to a diverse legal
force was a business need, Chin said. The fact that
the firm was training female attorneys for six and
seven years only to see so many leave represented
a loss of valuable resources. What’s more, many
clients were clamoring for diverse legal represen-
tation.
“our clients were sort of ahead of law firms in devel-

oping diversity programs,” Chin said.
in 2012, a group of attorneys working on retention
issues studied the Harvard Business review report
on sponsorship, a form of uber-mentoring that, in
addition to giving advice and coaching, involves EiN
identifying opportunities for sponsored lawyers and PsT
getting them positioned to showcase their talents. Ko
The firm’s management committee agreed to a pilot CK
/ ri
sponsorship program that launched in 2013. its focus YLJ
was and still is women attorneys. Another class for N
minorities, including LGBT attorneys, was recently
launched.
The firm selected 16 young female lawyers and was keeping them. so earlier this year Cadwalader
27 sponsors, including the firm’s top management. started a second sponsorship class, one made up of
The idea was to team up each young attorney nine minority attorneys and those self-identified as
with one or more senior attorneys in her practice LGBT.
Kathy Hirata chin, partner at
area. The senior would serve as a mentor, not only The sponsorship program is a big part of Cadwalad- Cadwalader

providing guidance but also seeking out oppor- er’s diversity efforts that include three other elements.
tunities to broaden the younger attorney’s exper- The firm’s affinity groups for various staff segments
tise and exercise leadership. The sponsor would have taken on more active roles, such as using contacts
also serve as an advocate. Cadwalader says early from those associations to attract clients. it created filter down to all associates because the program is
returns on the program are promising: two wom- the Cadwalader Center for Diversity and inclusion to causing senior staff to focus more on how sponsorship
en were promoted to partner and six to special carry out its diversity programs. it also established works and how it can be improved.
counsel.
a global committee of partners to determine future “They were probably doing this naturally, not even
When it came to ethnic and other forms of diversity, diversity strategies.
thinking about it,” Chin said, referring to the firm’s
roughly one-third of the firm’s new attorney class- While the sponsorship program is aimed specifically partners, “but now they are being given new ways of

es were described as diverse. The problem, again,
at women and minorities, Chin said its benefits would
doing it and being told how important it is.”

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