Advancing and Retaining Women of Color in Today’s Law Firms
In 2008, the WBA In partnership with co-sponsoring organizations: Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Hispanic Bar Association of DC, National Association of Women Lawyers, Howard University School of Law, moved into its second phase with a focus on the dwindling number of women of color in law firms. In May 2008, the WBA issued its report, Creating Pathways to Success for All, detailing the findings of the WBA’s Diversity Summit (Summit), held on March 19, 2008, at historic Howard University Law School. The 2008 Report makes concrete recommendations for addressing the combined effects of gender and race that affect the success and advancement of our colleagues who are women attorneys of color.

Corporate Counsel Women of Color
Laurie N. Robinson Haden (WBA’s 2019 Woman Lawyer of the Year) is the founder & CEO of Corporate Counsel Women of Color, which was founded to provide a support network to in-house women of color and to facilitate networking around the nation and abroad, promote career advancement and the success of in-house women of color, and promote all aspects of global diversity in the legal profession and workplace.The organization hosts an annual career strategies conference.

Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program
The Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program (DAPP) is a non-profit corporation that addresses the continued and systematic decline of women of color lawyers in law firms and across other coveted positions in the legal profession. DAPP aims to diversify the legal profession by expanding opportunities for women of color law students to secure summer positions at law firms and corporations following their first year of law school. Students who work in law firms following their first year of law school are more likely to obtain summer associate positions and secure offers of employment following law school. Therefore, DAPP’s primary goal is to infuse the pipeline to the profession with talented, highly qualified women of color in order to combat and increase the dismal statistics surrounding the number of women of color who are hired, retained and promoted at large law firms across the nation.