Akin Gump’s Jaelyn Judelson and Estela Díaz Discuss Firm Minority Law Student Recruiting Events, Big Law Diversity for Law.com Podcast

Akin Gump partners Jaelyn Judelson and Estela Díaz were interviewed on Law.com’s Legal Speak podcast, discussing a new series of online sessions that the firm is hosting for minority law students who are interested in pursuing careers in Big Law. Judelson chairs the firm’s Black Firmwide Resource Group (FRG), and Díaz the Latinx FRG.

Among other topics, the FRG heads discussed the role of recruiting in addressing the disparity between the percentage of diverse lawyers at firms and diversity across the United States.

Judelson on the origin of the online sessions: “Recruiting was one of the key elements that seemed to get a lot of attention and was a real focus area for us as a part of our recruiting efforts: that we could identify ways to increase our connection with Black law students and offer guidance as they navigate law school and begin their careers. But in the course of that discussion, of course we are hopeful that we will continue to attract and retain Black attorneys, but, broader than that, there was this opportunity that crystalized even further was the ability to include more people online than we would have had at an in-person event.”

Díaz on the expansion of the sessions: “Given the reception and the feedback that we got from students in response to the Black FRG event in November, we turned it into a series—we had the second session for the Latinx FRG in January, and another session for the Asian FRG in February. For both of those, we had certainly over 100 and close to 200 attendees…[S]tudents were chiming in with questions and comments, and, even after the events, they continued to reach out to some of the individual panelists to either offer thanks or ask additional questions about Big Law, which we thought was really encouraging and really the point of the whole series.”

Other topics include the importance of candor in discussing challenges, and reasons for hope that the legal industry is at a turning point in its long effort to diversify its ranks.

To listen to the full episode, click here.