COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION EXCELLENCE: MAYNARD ACHIEVES DEI GOALS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

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2021 DE&I Annual Report

Maynard & Gale (Maynard) is proud to share that it has exceeded the five-year Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals set in 2019. The goals, achieved ahead of schedule, were focused on three areas:

• Diversify the partnership whereby at least 20% of shareholders are women, and 10% of shareholders are attorneys of color, LGBTQ+, disabled, or traditionally underrepresented;
• Increase Maynard's reputation as a DEI-forward firm; and
• Deepen the Firm's knowledge of DEI and team building with diversity in mind.

In addition to progress in diversifying the partnership, the Firm's total number of diverse attorneys (excluding gender) has grown by over 11% since 2017. Maynard saw diversity across all attorney levels improve in the last 12 months.

"DE&I is at the core of our Firm’s culture and impacts how we approach business engagements,” said Jeff Grantham, Managing Shareholder. “We recognize that a diverse team strengthens our ability to tackle the increasingly complex legal issues of today and tomorrow."

"Diversifying our team makes us better advisors to our clients and enriches our experience in working together," said Stephanie Mays, Chief Talent Officer. "Our Firm's mission is to actively recruit, promote, retain, and foster a diverse legal team and an environment that embraces group input, ideas, dialogue, and constant improvement."

Improved diversity statistics result from thoughtful, strategic policies, programs, and culture at the Firm. Some of the most impactful include:

• Lateral Hiring Policy requiring at least 30% of lawyers interviewed to be Historically Underrepresented Lawyers (lawyers who identify as women, of color, with disabilities, LGBTQ+, or veterans);
• Maynard Law Prep, a pre-law program that identifies diverse undergraduate talent who reflect the potential to be candidates for our summer clerkship program upon entering law school;
• Maynard's RISE program, a formal leadership program for our third to seventh year high performing, high potential attorneys of color, attorneys with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys. The goal of RISE is to provide training and leadership development, formal and informal, to develop, retain, and promote our attorneys from these traditionally under-represented groups;
• Cultivate Maynard, small group discussions that provide a resource and forum for education and dialogue about our country's racial history. Through this internal forum, we are reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching movies that provide opportunities to learn and make progress toward racial equality.
• The Maynard Pledge, a voluntary pledge whereby all employees commit to doing their part to advance an inclusive, diverse and equitable environment at Maynard and in our communities. The Maynard Pledge encourages employees to educate themselves on issues of bias and discrimination, listen to others and seek to understand experiences and perspectives different than their own, among other things;
• Support of 50 approved hours of billable credit for lawyers’ DEI-related activities, including leading and participating in cultural, recruiting, and mentoring activities.

"As a result of our focus and programming, we have built better, stronger teams by adding and promoting more lawyers who bring diverse experience and backgrounds to enrich our work product and to deepen our team approach," said Judy Lam, Co-Chair of Maynard's DEI Committee. “As we strive to continually improve, Maynard adopts ambitious goals, just as our competitors and clients do."

Maynard’s 2021 DE&I Annual Report is available here.