Accenture’s law department has followed up on its 2005 survey of the key law departments serving it. The latest survey delves into every aspect of diversity. I noted several points from an article about this effort, in Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, Jan. 2007 at 20.
First, the survey runs to an unusual seven pages. In its detail, length, and scope of coverage, Accenture’s survey marks a high-water point of law-firm surveys (See my post of April 7, 2006 about law departments surveying their law firms.), but its length has drowned some firms.
The second point is that this survey has in it questions which I have not seen before: they regard the number of gay and lesbian lawyers within the firm. Third, Accenture fired a law department that refused to complete the survey’s 2005 version. Fourth, the legal administrator of the department met with at least 15 of the law firms to discuss their individual plans to increase diversity. Fifth, Accenture ranked its law firms on their diversity efforts using a red, yellow, and green scale. No law firm qualified as a green firm – one which has done an acceptable level of diversity improvement.