The Law Firm Services group of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Private Company Services yesterday launched the Firm’s first-ever survey focused on diversity at law firms.
We learn that The "Cultural Awareness and Inclusion Survey" was developed over the past year with input from PwC’s Diversity Advisory Group, diverse attorneys and organizations, as well as law firms recognized for their public commitment to expanding diversity efforts. Questionnaires were distributed on February 6th, with survey results made available to participating firms in July 2009.
The press release goes on to say:
To ensure the survey provides a broad picture of a Firm’s diversity efforts, the final report will include two sections.
Section one will provide detailed gender and minority statistics (by office and/or practice group) for law firm timekeepers in areas such as headcount ratios, utilization, revenue, and promotion and turnover.
The second section will summarize firm-wide diversity efforts in five key areas, including leadership, programs/initiatives, recruitment, retention and promotions, and client management.
"As a firm, we understand the benefits of employing a diverse workforce and have increasingly seen this become a focus of our law firm clients," said David Gaulin, co-chair of the Law Firm Services Group. "During times of economic uncertainty, when employee recruitment and retention strategies are critical to a firm’s short and long term success, benchmarking diversity programs against the competition could have a positive impact on the bottom line."
Research & Publications Page: http://www.pwc.com/extweb/home.nsf/docid/D4D7E2C6F0939E7A8525701A0007EE8B
