To improve the identification and hiring of talented minorities, we launched a Minority Job Fair in 1993. We invited the 36 U.S. firms to Wilmington to meet with minority candidates in their second or third year of law school. We identified talented students from top law schools and the historically black colleges and universities. And we've now expanded the job fairs to Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago. Last year, some 200 young people attended.
Young people are very savvy.
They need to see someone who looks like them on serious career paths. They need to see minority and women associates and partners doing litigation, involved in mergers and acquisitions, and making client contacts. They need to know diversity is real, and see for themselves there is no glass ceiling because of race or gender. A third way is to look at who's working in community legal aid. That's where I was when I got a call from Chuck Welch, back in 1972, asking me to come to DuPont.