Companies Want Lawyer Diversity, But Firms Lack Set Standard (1)

Laura Acosta estimates that her law firm, Goodwin Procter, spends up to 800 hours every year responding to diversity questionnaires from 10-15% of its clients.

Acosta, the firm’s managing director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, said one member of her team spends about 20% of her time working just on Goodwin’s top clients’ diversity information requests in collaboration with multiple Goodwin teams, such as finance and human resources information systems.

Like many law firm diversity chiefs, Acosta is aiming for real diversity in the industry but feels the data gathering process could be more efficient.

“Responding to client data requests ...