Recently, Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano’s Senior Associate Melissa Chandy joined The Legal Intelligencer’s 2017 Diversity Roundtable. Melissa and nine other participants discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion in the legal world. Melissa credits Partner David Stern for his tremendous help in maintaining diversity at the firm.
“We’re now at 39 attorneys with female associates running satellite offices and managing teams. They’re given the opportunity for leadership from the get go. We have Partner Dave Stern, who’s been critical in putting me in a leadership position, so it’s either having partners that take an interest in diversity or finding that one partner who wants to take an interest, which will help to retain diverse attorneys.”
Melissa went on to reference a July 2016 survey by The Legal Intelligencer that recognized Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano’s firm diversity for the second consecutive year.
“Just this past year, I believe The Legal Intelligencer recognized that we were one of the more diverse plaintiffs firms in the area. And we’ve done a great job of retaining diverse attorneys,” said Melissa. “And one thing that I found was a really good measure was putting diverse attorneys in leadership roles in the firm. So you’re not just hired and then kind of immersed in this culture. You’re seeing diverse attorneys who have input in decisions and who have input in strategy.”
To read the digital transcript of The Legal Intelligencer’s 2017 edition of the diversity roundtable, click here.
To view the print version, click here.
