Wal-Mart Will Use Software to Monitor Diversity of Outside Counsel
Wal-Mart has ditched four law firms for lacking commitment to diversity and will be using technology to keep an eye on the hundreds of other firms that do legal work for the retailer.
Miguel Rivera, Wal-Mart’s associate general counsel for outside counsel management, told a Florida Bar diversity symposium last month that the firm will use new software to monitor diversity, the Daily Business Review reports.
The program “will allow us to measure the diversity of attorneys at your firm based on the hours billed, so the system can’t be gamed,” Rivera reportedly said. The law firm regularly uses 500 outside law firms and occasionally uses another 300 firms.
Rivera said the firm fired four law firms and moved $60 million in business “from majority male to female and diverse relationship partners,” the story says.
Wal-Mart has 154 in-house lawyers. Thirty-seven percent are minorities and 43 percent are women.
