Accountability & Strategic Initiatives

Accountability

At O’Melveny we know there is no DE&I success without governance and accountability. The entire firm knows that DE&I priorities are top-of-mind—ones every colleague has a responsibility to work toward.

Our Chair has the ultimate responsibility for DE&I at the firm. The firm has a Partner for Diversity and Inclusion, who chairs the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. The DE&I Committee is comprised of influential partners representing various demographics, offices, and practices, who help the DE&I team make DE&I real at the firm.

Our four-person DE&I team is led by Bendita Cynthia Malakia, Director of Diversity & Engagement, who works with our DE&I Partner and Firmwide DE&I Committee to ensure that we stay focused on our DE&I goals and that we continue to enhance our inclusive culture. The Policy Committee receives regular reports about diversity, equity and inclusion—it is the group’s only permanent agenda item. Our partner compensation questionnaire specifically addresses contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion. We ask all attorneys, office heads, department chairs, and practice group leaders to report on their leadership contributions, including DE&I, in their annual self- reports. And our Compensation Committee examines these self-reports, along with upward reviews, carefully, asking the input of the DE&I Partner to ensure that those who are contributing are recognized.

Enhancements to Our DE&I Strategy: The Redesign Project

We continually iterate upon our DE&I Strategy. In 2021, the firm undertook a comprehensive DE&I initiative: The Redesign Project. Tasked with reviewing the design and operation of the firm’s key internal programs and processes, we identified nuanced adjustments and modifications that strengthened DE&I throughout the career journey of our O’Melveny colleagues.

As a result of the Redesign Project, throughout 2022 and into 2023, we have developed several firmwide process improvement programs to enhance our DE&I resourcing, including through our work coordination program. The work coordination team, who are responsible for ensuring that attorneys receive career enhancing work opportunities, is completely comprised of underrepresented individuals (e.g., women, racial/ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+). We have standardized reporting that demonstrates differentials in utilization among practice groups and permits coordination and staffing intervention. A team—inclusive of the Head of the Work Coordination Team, the DE&I team, and the Director of Career Development—coordinate to intervene, share positive insights about colleagues, thwart potentially harmful narratives, and ultimately talk to practice leaders and partners about inclusive staffing and work coordination practices. Lastly, on an ad hoc and organic basis, our DEI Committee conducts individual check-ins with racial/ethnic minority associates, staff attorneys, and counsel.

Employee Networks

O’Melveny has over 30 Employee Networks around the globe focused on identity, including age/stage, first generation, gender, LGBTQ+, parenting, race/ethnicity, and religion. The Networks organize professional and client development activities, do community outreach, assist with recruiting, and enjoy social and professional functions.

DE&I Programming

Alongside routine and timely programming from our 30+ Employee Networks, on an annual basis, O’Melveny commemorates Embracing Diversity and Values Day. On this day, the entire firm celebrates the critical importance of diversity and inclusion to our core values.

Each office marks the day by organizing its own slate of events, presentations, and team activities tailored to issues central to its community. Our 2022 theme of AMPLIFY sought to elevate the experiences of individuals with different backgrounds and to engage in specific allyship across difference.

DE&I Education

At O’Melveny we strive to learn, grow, and evolve with the world around us. Every year we have mandatory DE&I education: in 2022, the focus was implicit bias. In 2023, it is Inclusive Leadership for our attorneys and people managers and Inclusive Culture for the rest of the firm.

We regularly host conversations on a variety of diversity topics. In 2021, these included: a presentation on antisemitism led by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; a discussion with Charles Yu, the author of Interior Chinatown; Transgender 101, presented by Lambda Legal Transgender attorney Carl Charles; The History of Juneteenth presented by University of Mississippi historian Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott; The History of Anti-Asian Discrimination in the United States presented by Professor Russell Jeung, Chair and Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate; The History of Blacks in the White House presented by Dr. Clarence Lusane, Professor in the Political Science Department at Howard University. Many of these presentations are recorded and can be accessed anytime through our DE&I Library. We also often raffle or provide the books that are being covered. In 2022, topics included parenting transgender children, exploring Latinx art, discussing the immigrant experience, abortion rights and the power of subversive women’s advocacy, the experience of Black women judges, and myriad other topics impacting a variety of identity groups.