BMO has a long history as a champion of diversity and inclusion – it’s a core value and a key priority for us. This includes diversity of perspectives, experiences, abilities, cultures and gender.
Continue reading “Caroline Tsai, deputy general counsel, BMO”
I think it’s absolutely critical for a company to embrace diversity and inclusion. At Salesforce, we operate in a very competitive industry – one that is evolving every day and where innovation isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’, but a business imperative.
To assemble an informed and representative perspective of the legal sector, our quantitative research went beyond considering purely the most senior legal figures in the United States.
It’s no secret that the United States takes diversity very seriously. Since the advent of the Bill of Rights – which in 1789 laid bare the basic personal freedoms, civil liberties and protections guaranteed by the Constitution – diversity and inclusion has been an evolving process.
In terms of gender equality, the point when women have children is still where the biggest drop off occurs. This is, however, not the only point, according to Vodafone Americas GC, Megan Doberneck.
One trend which emerged in the research conducted to support this report, was a much more serious focus on sponsorship and mentoring in the US compared with the UK and Europe.
Across the legal sector – from the partner level in private firms and general counsel in major corporates, right through to new recruits fresh out of law school – research shows that there remains barriers to entering and progressing through the sector for certain groups and demographics.
In its most broad sense, that sentiment has been the foundation for intellectual property protections dating back as far as the Ancient Greeks. While not codified in law, the premise held was that by awarding effective monopolies to novel ideas, new concepts and developments could be shared with the world without fear of duplication. That concept evolved over centuries, as the relative protections afforded by intellectual property legislation developed into what we now know as modern patent law.
Continue reading “A tangled web – innovation, IP and patent trolls”
In September, GC began its latest series of Dissenting Perspectives events, once again held in tandem with RPC. The series aims to take a different angle in considering the role and challenges faced by modern GCs and senior in-house lawyers. For this session we were considering how in-house lawyers can navigate one of the most ubiquitous and tricky concepts of the 21st century – personal brand.
Have you ever done a Google search for quotes on lawyers? They. Are. Horrible. This quip is fairly typical:
‘It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.’