DEI Video | Sullivan & Cromwell
Highlighting the Promotion of Diversity Equity and Inclusion
Client: Sullivan & Cromwell
Industry: Legal
Video Type: Recruitment
Messaging Type: Interview-Based
About This Video Project
Sullivan & Cromwell hired us to create a video about their Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives. Hear from their team about how DEI are foundational values that they strive to infuse into everything they do. Learn how they ensure their teams have diversity and how they use diverse voices to produce better work product. Discover how they strive to make their population representative of the law schools they recruit from and how they ensure their lawyers have a full and fair opportunity. See how their commitment to DEI initiatives, driven by feedback from summer associates to partners, is critical to the firm’s success. Celebrate the close connections and interactions that make Sullivan & Cromwell an inclusive law firm and the unparalleled dedication to being the very best that defines them.
Transcription
DEI is definitely part of our foundational values here at the firm, just period. And we really do try to infuse it in everything that we do, both things that are public facing, not only to our clients, not only to law students, and also to our people, but also things that people don’t see. We have fantastic clients who demand diversity in their staffing, who demand that they get all the inputs, and you’re not going to get all the inputs unless you have that kind of diversity of opinion, of diversity of perspective, diversity of background. One of the things that I work with and talk to our partners about all the time is when we are putting teams together to make sure that our teams have diversity, that they look diverse, and that they have the kind of diversity that isn’t always obvious. I think that when you get diverse voices on an issue, or brief, or contract negotiation, you’re producing better work product. So I think diversity lends itself to what we give to our clients. Equity and inclusion is fundamental to how we see the firm developing. We want to strive so that our population is representative of the population of the law schools from which we recruit. And ultimately we want to make sure that those law schools are representative of the population from which they can draw students, and that’s really key to what we want to do. Giving those opportunities and ensuring that we have a diverse set of lawyers, they see that the firm cares about these things, and they see that the firm wants to nurture their development so they want to stay for that reason. The Diversity Committee is a central part of the firm that helps pursue and achieve our DEI objectives. It comprises partners and associates that are interested in DEI issues. The associates and the participation of the Affinity Networks and the Diversity Committee really inform the firm’s approach to its DEI initiatives. Much of those initiatives are driven by the feedback that we get from summer associates all the way up to the more senior associates and including our partners. DEI is critical to the firm’s success. Sullivan & Cromwell has always been an inclusive law firm. We bring folks in from all kinds of backgrounds. The most important asset of Sullivan & Cromwell are our people. I’m very committed to ensuring that the next generation has a full and fair opportunity, and it’s important to the future of Sullivan & Cromwell. And it’s both the right thing to do, and it’s good for our clients. One of the reasons that I actually chose S&C was because when I came, I met so many different types of people from different places, different backgrounds. It was not at all a cookie cutter. That has only increased over the years since I joined decades ago. We’re so much stronger with people from very different backgrounds, different strengths. That’s where we are at our best. When I look for a culture, there wasn’t sort of a homogenous one that I felt like I had to fit into, but there was actually just a collection of really smart, committed people that approach work and their own personal lives in very different ways. Personal interactions that I had with individuals and the close connections that I was able to form through the professional work really helped to forge relationships that made me feel like I had a real professional and personal home here at S&C. S&C really embodies excellence in everything that we do. We’re about celebrating diversity. We’re about recognizing talent. We have to continue to attract and retain the best lawyers, and it’s this unparalleled dedication to being the very best that we possibly can, I think, is really what defines us.
To learn more: https://www.sullcrom.com
