Cook wondered whether the dearth of minorities at Arnold & Porter had hit anyone else’s radar screen. He didn’t wonder long. A few months after he made partner in the telecommunications practice group, Cook received a visit from the then chairman of the firm’s hiring committee, William Baer. Baer says that since he became head of the hiring committee in the mid-1980s, he had seen the firm “making incremental progress [in diversity], until suddenly we found ourselves back where we started.” He says he told Cook that the firm found it unacceptable that it didn’t have any African American associates in a city like Washington, D.C., with four unusually diverse law schools in the area.
“We are obviously doing something wrong,” Baer told Cook. “There has to be a way to do a better job.” Baer asked Cook, who was already a member of the hiring committee, to head a subcommittee focusing on minority hires. He made it clear that Cook would have the full support of management. “I always thought that Arnold & Porter was a great place for minorities,” says Cook, who had experienced racism firsthand growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the same time, Cook says, he thought the firm “could use more color.” Baer’s proposal “was like getting a rocket boost,” he says.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
