Extract from April Runft’s article “3 Things I Learned at CLOC Institute 2018”
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium’s (CLOC) Institute 2018 in Las Vegas doubled in size compared to last year, drawing 2,000 supporters. The audience was split about 50-50 between legal operations executives and other members of the ecosystem, like law firms and technology providers.
“We continue to be surprised by the community’s explosive growth,” said Connie Brenton, CEO of CLOC. “And it’s important to us that we keep our culture of collaboration, connection, and empathy as we grow. We had a feeling the major panel discussions would be good, based on our preparation—but we couldn’t anticipate such a high level of authenticity, and the impact some of them would have.”
Industry experts have been tracking the rise of legal operations for several years. But I was a newbie to the CLOC Institute this year. Here are three things I learned.
#1: It’s go time for diversity and inclusion.
We’re beyond introductory conversations about why D&I is vital to business success. In one session, groups like Baker McKenzie, Oracle, and Starbucks talked about incentives for results, “de-biased” interviews that prize skills over sway, and programs that build talent pipelines early, like scholarship and work-study programs.
“Diverse recruiting works best when you set target numbers to hold yourself accountable,” said panelist Anna Brown, director of global diversity and inclusion at Baker McKenzie. “Commitment to diversity means you measure your progress, report on it, and share data across the company—not just HR.”
How do you fight “diversity fatigue” when it feels like too much—as if D&I work were on top of, rather than part of, your day job?
“Bring in new voices,” Anna said. “Refresh your strategy. Keep tying the discussion back to business results.”
