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Charting a Diverse Course for the Law

Formed in May 2009, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) held its first annual meeting in Washington earlier this month. Its first executive director, Washington and Lee alumnus Robert J. Grey Jr., of the Law Class of 1976, concluded that the higher-than-expected attendance showed how important the new initiative is to the profession.

“This attendance level is hard evidence of the importance that the leaders of the preeminent legal organizations in the country assign to this task of advancing legal diversity,” Robert said in a a story on the LCLD website. “And the attendance is especially noteworthy since general counsel and managing partners themselves had to be in attendance and could not send substitutes. In fact, we were very strict in enforcing that.”

The conference was titled “OPEN,” with the four letters standing for “Obligation, Power, Engagement, Now.” LCLD’s self-stated vision is “to significantly advance diversity and inclusion in our profession.”

Robert, a partner with Hunton and Williams, in Richmond, Va., and former president of the American Bar Association,  discussed the LCLD’s work and the state of diversity in the profession in a question-and-answer article in the “AmLaw Daily.” You can read his remarks here.

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