The brand position at Walmart symbolizes the broader role that general counsel plays today in the world`s largest and most influential companies. During his conversation with Richardson, Brand openly shared the opportunities and challenges of having a dual role as general counsel and management, learning about the business, leading a global legal and non-legal staff, and creating a culture where everyone is involved in proactive risk management to protect the company`s interests. To measure the effectiveness of our programs, we use data and analysis to collect useful indicators for progress, such as our legal fees for women and various lawyers. We expect our law firms to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion and to actively develop women and diverse lawyers for advancement in their law firms. To make sure this happens, we look at the demographics of the entire law firm, the demographics of the firm`s Walmart team, and the hours billed by various lawyers, among others. In 2005, Walmart Legal began leveraging its size and reach to fill the diversity gap in our external consulting firms. Early initiatives included increasing diversity among lawyers who act as relationship partners. Today, we have approximately 200 women and various lawyers who serve as partners in our external consulting firms and control a significant portion of our annual legal fees in their law firms. When it comes to promoting diversity, our in-house legal team has a responsibility to lead by example, both internally and externally. Zum 31. As of October 2016, Walmart Legal employed 155 in-house lawyers, 43 percent of whom are women and 30 percent are lawyers of color, of which 18.5 percent are women of color. In addition, four of the seven most important leadership positions in our department are currently held by women, two of whom are women of color.
While these statistics put us above national averages for diversity in corporate law services, it is not enough to reach diversity milestones, as inclusion can be harder to achieve and harder to measure. NAMWOLF is the acronym for the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, an organization that aims to change the face of the legal industry with a focus on supplier diversity. CEO Joel Stern – former assistant general counsel at Accenture – talks to GC about NAMWOLF`s mission and how it will get there. Veta T. Richardson: Thank you very much for your time today. What is your role as Walmart`s General Counsel? Karen Roberts, Walmart`s general counsel, is a long-time advocate for diversity, both within the companies in which she operates and in the wider legal community. She shares the initiatives Walmart has implemented internally, as well as her thoughts on how large companies can use their size and reputation to make changes. General Electric`s Denniston Fellowship is an innovative and practical initiative to change the face of advocacy. GC spoke with Tom LaFrance, general counsel at GE Transportation, who led the idea, and Marina Merjan, the first Denniston Scholar.
VTR: Since we are at VAC, I would like to conclude by asking you how we can provide you with good value for money and service as Chief Legal Officer and members of your legal team. As Executive Vice President and Global Head of Ethics and Compliance, Mr. Miner will report to Rachel Brand, Walmart`s General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Global Governance. Rachel Brand: Thank you for having me. My role at Walmart is broader than legal. My organization at Walmart is called Global Governance. This includes traditional legal functions that fall under my jurisdiction through our General Counsel and my role as Corporate Secretary, but I also oversee ethics, compliance, corporate safety, aviation, investigative functions and our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). Because our business is so diverse, we address a variety of compliance issues ranging from food safety and OSHA to the environment, trade, and FCPA, among others.
I also recently added a new digital citizenship feature that will advise the entire company on issues of privacy, data use and governance, use of new technologies, cybersecurity, and document management. Since joining PayPal in 2015 as General Counsel, Louise Pentland has focused on diversity in the formation of her legal department. VTR: You`ve gone from a very high-level government department, which focuses on legal issues – and I could imagine having a lot of your conversations, from lawyer to lawyer – to a business environment. Tell me how your role has evolved and how you see yourself. Rachel Brand, Executive Vice President of Global Governance, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Walmart, recently visited ACC`s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to meet with President and CEO Veta T. Richardson about adapting to her new role at the world`s largest company. Walmart is the most profitable company on the Fortune Global 500 list in 2019 and, with 2.2 million employees worldwide, the world`s largest private sector employer. Brand`s illustrious legal career includes the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In this role, she oversaw thousands of lawyers and professionals in doJ`s Civil Litigation Division, as well as the Ministry`s research and funding offices, including the Office of Violence Against Women. We are proud that Walmart Legal is one of the most diverse legal departments in America.
As with many other successful moves, achieving greater diversity at Walmart required a legal commitment and didn`t happen overnight. Our size and size set us apart from other companies and provide a unique platform to address the lack of diversity in this profession and make a difference. Today, Brand leads one of the largest legal departments in America with a broad portfolio of responsibilities that includes not only a team of lawyers worldwide, but also compliance, ethics, corporate security, corporate governance, and even an emergency center that provided assistance to New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina. During her career, Brand held the No. 3 position at the Department of Justice as Assistant Attorney General, worked for a Supreme Court justice, and helped confirm two others by the Senate. Brand: This is one of the parts of my journey that has been very helpful. I had a lot of experience in talking to non-lawyers about legal issues when I was in government. As an Associate GA and as Head of the Office of Legal Policy at the Ministry of Justice – which is a legal role but also a political role – I really had to think about how to talk about these issues in a way that the public would understand. All of my roles in government involved conversations with various authorities. You can talk to the lawyers of these agencies, but just as often you are not. They talk to political workers, to law enforcement, to heads of authority. So I`ve become good enough to talk about complex legal issues in an accessible way.
This skill continues to serve me well in my current role. Brand was part of the legal team that represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida U.S. presidential election recount,[13] and also briefly served as a partner on Bush`s transition team. [10] Brand went on to serve as assistant counsel and associate adviser to President Bush. [14] [15] Beginning in 2003,[10] she served as Deputy Attorney General of the George W. Bush administration`s Office of Legal Policy, where she helped lead the Supreme Court appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito. [13] Brand`s portfolio also included the development of the government`s position on the readmission of the Patriot Act,[16] as such, in that capacity he testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on the merits of using administrative subpoenas in terrorism investigations. [17] Rachel Brand is Executive Vice President of Global Governance, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Walmart.