Nokia and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) have announced a joint Global Law Firm Diversity Survey, a first-of-its-kind tool to make it easier for law firms around the world to assess and advance efforts that promote equity, inclusion and diversity (EI&D).
The Global Law Firm Diversity Survey brings together existing programs of Nokia and Washington, D.C.-based, MCCA to track and further EI&D efforts, with the aim of creating a single platform for law firms to demonstrate their actions and commitment on a global scale. The global survey targets all regions except the US, for which the MCCA will continue to use the existing separate US survey.
By having the Global Law Firm Diversity Survey results available for multiple companies and law firm clients, law firms will be able to avoid having to conduct multiple surveys on the same EI&D topic. The survey design takes into account the differing legal and regulatory requirements and restrictions around data collection and processing.
Since early 2021, Nokia Legal and Compliance has been measuring the progress of some of its key panel law firms in building a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment in their regional and global operations. Thus, developing a global survey with MCCA, which has conducted Law Firm Diversity Surveys across the top US firms for the past 18 years, is a natural progression of the efforts to promote EI&D in a meaningful and impactful way across the legal and compliance profession.
Legal communities around the world can provide data to the MCCA Law Firm Diversity Database that will serve as a tool for MCCA members (like Nokia), to track their progress in advancing EI&D issues. The survey will cover key diversity indicators such as race and ethnicity, religious minorities, gender identity, disability status and LGBTQ+ status; as well as subjects like leadership, recruitment, and management composition to ensure a comprehensive view.
The Global Law Firm Diversity Survey is planned to be open for law firms to participate starting from 23 May 2022.
Wanji Walcott, MCCA’s Board Chair and Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel at Discover Financial Services, said: “At a time when we’re seeing long overdue, global momentum for companies to become more representative of their communities, MCCA is thrilled to partner with Nokia to expand our survey work internationally. Moving from making commitments to following through on them is absolutely crucial to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we know that with the right data in hand, counsels’ offices worldwide can help their companies successfully transition from making pledges to taking action.”
Nassib Abou-Khalil, Nokia Chief Legal Officer, said: “Equity, inclusion and diversity are an essential part of Nokia’s culture. Through the discussions we had with law firms participating in our EI&D program, launched in early 2021, we came to understand the complexity of obtaining global data on the topic and the challenges that law firms face when having to complete similar exercises for multiple clients. We wanted to extend the impact of our project beyond Nokia and to collaborate with our partners to make a lasting, holistic and meaningful change. This important joint initiative with MCCA, a renowned advocate of diversity, provides law firms worldwide an opportunity to share and compare data and see how they are doing in comparison to peer companies, in order to advance equity, inclusion and diversity in the legal profession.”