Retaining Attorneys of Color: A Deep Dive View into Sponsorship & Mentorship (Thomson Reuters)
Thomson Reuters, August 16, 2018
Retaining Attorneys of Color: A Deep Dive View into Sponsorship & Mentorship
“This spring, the New York City Bar Association hosted its second Associate Leadership Institute (ALI), a multi-part, innovative leadership program designed to provide skill-development and networking opportunities for attorneys of color at the City Bar’s signatory law firms. The majority of faculty of the Institute were senior attorneys of color. Gabrielle Lyse Brown, Executive Director of the City Bar’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, sat down with two pairs of sponsors and protégés. One pair — Michael Blair, Presiding Partner of Debevoise & Plimpton and his protégé, Simone Hicks, a senior associate in the firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation group — resulted from a formal pairing at the firm. The other pair — Michele Hirschman, a partner at Paul Weiss, and her protégé, Yahonnes Cleary, a partner in the firm’s Litigation practice — had emerged from a mentoring program during Cleary’s second year at the firm and has since evolved into a sponsor-protégé relationship.”
