HP Legal Chief Rivera: Demand Diversity, Law Firms Will Listen

摘要

HP Inc. Chief Legal Officer Kim Rivera’s promise to withhold fees for outside law firms that don’t meet diversity goals has achieved results, with 95% now meeting the standards. Rivera’s legal department was one of the first to give financial teeth to diversity requests for outside counsel. The company’s initiative, implemented in phases starting in 2017, required most of its firms to staff at least one diverse attorney on HP matters or face a 10% cut in fees. “Our initiative is meant to make sure that opportunity at that business is spread more evenly to folks,” said Rivera, who added that about 46% of the company’s outside firms met the standard three years ago. The initiative also requires quarterly reports on each firm’s diversity statistics.