Caren Ulrich Stacy

Founder

Caren Ulrich Stacy has more than 20 years of experience in recruitment, development, and diversity with law firms across the country, including Arnold & Porter, Weil Gotshal, McGuireWoods, and Cooley.

Background

She is the CEO of Diversity Lab, which creates and tests innovative talent management and diversity initiatives. The Lab’s hallmark project – the OnRamp Fellowship – has helped boost diversity in law firms as the first re-entry program ever launched in the legal profession for women lawyers. The Fellowship is also now expanding into legal departments and financial services firms. Other current projects include:

TakeALittleAction.com – Highlighting individuals and initiatives that advance women in law, tech, science, finance, and other industries to encourage support of their efforts. (The video and website were honored with the Catalyst #DisruptTheDefault Award in 2015)
Culture Analysis – Facilitating the first empirical study with law firms, legal departments, and financial services firms to better understand the organizations’ overall cultures as well as the micro-cultures that exist in each practice group/division.
Women in Law Hackathon – Launching the first hackathon — a Shark Tank style pitch competition — aimed at generating innovative ideas that retain and advance women in law firms in collaboration with Stanford Law School and Bloomberg Law.
The Judicial Diversity Initiative – Providing diverse lawyers with details on how to apply for state judgeships and a listing of current openings across the U.S.
WomenLegalExperts.com – Promoting successful women lawyers across the country who have been identified as experts in their field by Chambers and BTI. (Launching early 2018)
TopLawyerCoaches.com – Highlighting top career coaches who are helping to advance the careers of diverse lawyers.

Prior to launching the Lab, Caren was the head of legal talent for top law firms for 20 years. She also pioneered a data-driven “Moneyball” approach to legal talent management through Lawyer Metrics, a start-up company she co-founded and led as President. Lawyer Metrics was bought by the Access Group.

Honors & Awards

National Association of Legal Career Professionals (NALP) Mark of Distinction Award, 2009

Elected as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, 2010

Appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Commission on Improving the Legal Profession, 2013

College of Law Practice Management InnovAction Award, 2014

Ms. JD Strength in Numbers Award, 2015

Catalyst #DisruptTheDefault Award, 2015*

American Bar Association (ABA) Golden Hammer Award for Diversity, 2016

Selected from 500 entrepreneurs as a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, 2016

Woman of Achievement Award, Legal Momentum — The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2017

*Caren and Steve Gluckman won the 2015 Catalyst #DisruptTheDefault Award for their www.TakeALittleAction.com video and website.

Industry Leadership

Caren serves on the Board of Advisors for DirectWomen, a national non-profit organization that is increasing the representation of women lawyers on corporate boards. Caren also serves as the Vice President of Partnerships and Policy for the United States National Committee for UN Women, San Francisco.

Over the past two decades, she has contributed to over 250 presentations and publications on legal talent management and authored several highly regarded books, including Loyalty by Design: A Practical Guide for Developing an Effective Attorney Integration Program.

Select Published Books & Articles

Books

Foreword Author, “The Articulate Attorney” By Brian Johnson and Marsha Hunter (Crown King Books, June 2013)
Contributing Author & Editor, “The Six-Minute Marathon: A Guide to Life as a Lawyer” By Judge Andy Hartman (NITA, June 2010)
Contributing Author, “Partners in Transition: The Five Phases of an Effective Partner Integration Program” (NALP Foundation, January 2010)
Contributing Author, “How Associate Evaluations Measure Up: Identifying Effective Evaluations Criteria” (NALP Foundation, June 2006)
Co-author, “Loyalty By Design: A Practical Guide For Developing an Effective Associate Integration Program” (NALP Foundation, July 2005)
Contributing Author, “Best Practices in Attorney Professional Development – Conducting an Effective Needs Assessment” (American Bar Association, October 2004)

Articles

NALP Bulletin, “Keeping the Keepers: Focusing on Lateral Associate Hires” (January 2014)
Law Practice Management, American Bar Association, “Solving the Multimillion-Dollar C Player Problem” (May 2013)
NALP Bulletin, “Behavioral Interviewing 2.0: Using Structured Panel Interviews to Identify High Performers and Eliminate Bias in Lawyer Interviewing” (February 2012)
Bloomberg Law, “Everything You Think You Know About Lawyer Recruiting Is Wrong: The New Science of Evidence-Based Hiring Practices” (November 2011)
The American Lawyer and Law.com, “Moneyball for Law Firms” (October 2011)
West LegalEdcenter Newsletter, “Emerging Trends in Lawyer Development & Advancement” (December 2009)
NALP Bulletin, “Moving From Lockstep to a Merit-Based Competency System” (September 2009)

Full List of Publications, Leadership Activities & Speaking Engagements Updated 1-19-16

A Note from the Fellowship Founder

A lot of smart people in the legal profession are focusing on how to retain women in the workforce. And for good reason — the number of female lawyers in law firms is declining and there continues to be a deficit of women and diverse lawyers in the leadership ranks within law firms and legal departments. But what about the highly qualified women and other lawyers who took a hiatus from our profession and want to come back? Why are we not also focusing our attention on that untapped pool of talented professionals?

As a 30-year talent management veteran in law, I understand the challenges faced by women in these fast-paced, demanding environments. When a third-year female associate in a law firm, for example, takes a job hiatus for several years to raise children, there is invariably a question about where she will fit in the law firm’s compensation and advancement structure upon her return. Many practice group leaders have asked me that precise question when I have presented them with similar lateral candidates. The even tougher questions that typically follow include: “How can we be certain that she has the skills to step right back in? And do we know for sure that she really wants to come back?"

None of these questions can be answered easily and confidently at the outset. That is why Goldman Sachs, Sara Lee, Credit Suisse, and others have been facilitating “Returnships” (trademarked by Goldman Sachs) for years. These re-entry platforms allow the returning professionals and the organizations to engage in a "try-out" to determine fit, while also giving the professionals a chance to strengthen their skills.

With the help of more than 20 talent experts and many innovative organizations, we have built our own unique version of the "Returnship" model — with a robust selection process and a comprehensive training and coaching component — in the legal profession. The goal is to provide returning women and other lawyers with additional experience and skills while helping law firms and legal departments replenish their talent pipeline with diverse, high-performers who have a desire to return to and advance in these organizations.

More than 3 million women left the workforce in the last few years, with the pandemic exacerbating the exodus further. We want to make sure the lawyers who left have a structured path back into law.

Click on applicants or organizations to learn about the benefits, the program infrastructure, and how to apply or join the effort.

Thanks to the wonderful support of everyone involved since OnRamp's inception in 2014, including the four founding firms mentioned above, we've already matched more than 90 returning women — one-third of whom are lawyers of color — with leading law firms, legal departments, and financial services firms.

Caren Ulrich Stacy