Engagement

Collaborating with external stakeholders—including our clients—to further our shared values.

We must work as a collective. By collaborating with clients around our commitment to DEI, supporting women entrepreneurs and professionals through Project W, expanding our supplier diversity efforts, and supporting and sponsoring affinity bar organizations and other diversity organizations, we are committed to doing this work together.

Client DEI Surveys

DWT completes over 170+ DEI client and industry surveys annually. We leverage our responses for client DEI surveys to connect with our clients about how we can support their DEI journey and business objectives.

These conversations have resulted in furthering DEI opportunities within the legal industry, such as joint partnership on DEI initiatives to discussing staffing and access to leadership roles on the client's matters.

External Collaborations

We sponsor and support a number of national minority bar and external diversity organizations. For several national affinity organization conferences, we host client-focused events to provide opportunities for up-and-coming diverse attorneys to connect and deepen our relationships with key clients. These events have been critical to the business development of our diverse attorneys.

Corporate Counsel Women of Color (CCWC)
Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA)
LGBTQ+ Bar Association
National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL)
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA)
National Bar Association (NBA)
South Asian Bar Association (SABA)
Charting Your Own Course (CYOC)
Diversity & Flexibility Alliance (DFA)
Leadership Council for Legal Diversity (LCLD)
Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA)
Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP)
Law Firm Anti-Racism Alliance (LFAA)
J.E.D.I Collaborative
New York City Bar Office of Diversity and Inclusion
Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP)

Client Summits

Our DEI Client Engagement Committee hosts DEI@DWT Client Summits to further our shared commitment to DEI with our clients. We've held large online virtual summits and in-person regional summits to bring together DWT lawyers and our clients.

Supplier Diversity

DWT has a supplier diversity program focused on:

monitoring our spend with diverse businesses
obtaining from existing and prospective suppliers an acknowledgement of and commitment to corporate DEI objectives
supporting the growth of communities in which we do business

Since 2020, at least 5% of our total purchases were made from diverse businesses.

Amy Flint, senior DEI engagement manager at Davis Wright, discusses how investment in DEI has grown exponentially at the firm and is serving as an important connection point and conversation channel with clients.

Christina Chan, a partner in the Seattle Office and member of the firm's DEI Client Engagement Committee, talks about the way the committee is working to advance DEI in collaboration with some of the firm's largest clients.

Autumn Hunter, associate general counsel and managing director for public policy and political law at Bank of America, explains how leadership makes the difference with DEI and how the bank is partnering with firms like Davis Wright to make incremental but significant change in the legal industry.

Affinity Bar Organizations

"Growing up, I did not know any South Asian lawyers. And notwithstanding that I have practiced law for almost 15 years, it was only upon joining DWT that I had a sizable cohort of desi colleagues for the first time, which has been amazing." –Thaila Sundaresan, DWT Partner & Member, South Asian Bar Association of Northern California

Lavender Law 2022

HNBA Convention 2022

NAWL Annual Meeting 2022

National Bar Association Convention 2022

SABA Conference 2022

Our DEI Client Engagement Committee hosted our first regional DEI@DWT Client Summits in Seattle and New York. Approximately 60 people from DWT and our invited clients attended across both summits.