Thinking outside the box to meet clients' demands

Diversity targets set by clients may be unrealistic for smaller firms to meet. Lisa Mueller of Casimir Jones explores how creative D&I solutions can make a difference.

My law firm, Casimir Jones, is a life sciences IP boutique firm located in Middleton, Wisconsin. Middleton is about six miles from downtown Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin. Casimir Jones has a total of 18 patent practitioners—15 patent attorneys and three patent agents. Of our 18 practitioners, we have four female partners, and all of our patent agents are female.

Over the last few years, a number of the firm’s clients have expressed expectations that we actively focus on the recruitment and development of underrepresented people, particularly women, persons of colour, LGBTQ+ persons, people with disabilities, first generation professionals, and veterans. 

Several clients have requested that we focus on hiring racially diverse patent attorneys, agents, and patent specialists. In fact, some have asked that the firm provide the specific number of racially diverse patent attorneys, agents and patent specialists that we intend to hire over the next three to five years.