D&I update: Tiffany Cunningham’s historic Fed Circ nomination and more
WIPR brings you all the latest diversity and inclusion (D&I) news affecting the IP world, including the advancement of Tiffany Cunningham’s historic nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Cunningham moves closer to historic Fed Circ appointment
IP lawyer and Perkins Coie partner Tiffany Cunningham is close to making history by becoming the first Black judge for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary advanced her nomination.
To date, the Federal Circuit is the only federal appeals court to have never had a Black judge. Cunningham’s appointment would also achieve another milestone by creating an even split between male and female judges who sit on the court.
She serves as trial and appellate counsel for Fortune 500 companies, small enterprises, and individuals in complex patent and trade secret disputes.
She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and also earned a BSc in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which would make her one of the few judges on the Federal Circuit with a technical degree.
Before joining Perkins, Cunningham worked at Kirkland & Ellis, where she was part of a team representing BlackBerry that succeeded in reversing a nearly $150 million jury verdict against the tech company in a patent suit.
BAME law careers hit worst by COVID-19: study finds
The careers of lawyers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a study by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Foundation has confirmed.
The whitepaper, “ Pandemic Nation: Understanding Its Impact on Lawyers from Underrepresented Communities” was also sponsored by the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP) and the Thomson Reuters Institute. More than 400 lawyers responded to the survey, and responses were collected in February 2021.
It found that in the UK more than four in 10 (44%) of lawyers of colour find personal development and progression at work challenging. This was largely due to a lack of in-person contact, a heavy workload and caregiver responsibilities during lockdowns imposed by the pandemic, according to respondents.
The survey results found that 43% of those identifying as part of an underrepresented race and/or ethnicity found development and progression in the legal industry more difficult, compared to 24% of white lawyers.
In addition, the results indicate that women experience bias and micro-aggressions at work more often than men, and lawyers of colour are even more likely to have experienced bias at work.
“Knowing how and if solutions to these barriers are working is critical to increasing retention and advancement of these professionals in these underrepresented communities within the legal industry,” said Jennifer Chen, director of the ACC Foundation. “Now armed with this important information, we can make strides across the industry to eliminate those barriers at all stages of one’s career.”
Shareholders hit out at Coca-Cola’s diversity policy
Coca-Cola shareholders have warned that a controversial diversity policy unveiled by the company earlier this year would contravene anti-discrimination laws.
The American Civil Rights Project (ACRP) complained in an open letter to the corporation that the policy demanded that law firms seeking to keep the company as a client must commit that at least 30% of billed time would be from “diverse attorneys,” and at least half of that time would be from Black attorneys.
Coca-Cola’s race-specific contracting policy, according to the ACRP, exposed its shareholders to “material risk of liability” for potentially violating anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin.
The letter further alleged that all of Coca-Cola’s decision-makers knew, or should have known, that the policy was potentially illegal.
Coca-Cola announced in February 2021 that it would withhold a non-refundable 30% of fees from law firms that fail to meet its new diversity requirements, as then-general counsel Bradley Gayton launched a blistering attack on the legal sector for not viewing D&I as a business imperative.
The company subsequently decided to stall the plan following Gayton’s abrupt departure less than a year later.
Monica Douglas, the company’s new general counsel, confirmed the company was “taking a pause for now” but would retain some aspects of the diversity plan.
