Mala Ahuja Harker Pledges Commitment to Leaders at the Front Diversity Initiative

Earlier this year, Friedman Kaplan Management Committee member Mala Ahuja Harker pledged her personal commitment to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (“LCLD”) Leaders at the Front initiative, which is designed to dismantle systemic barriers preventing underrepresented attorneys from achieving the highest levels of leadership within law firms and corporate legal departments.

Through the Leaders at the Front initiative, LCLD asked its more than 400 members, who include corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners, to make personal commitments to DEI and implement organizational changes that are specific, meaningful, and measurable. The conclusion of the campaign was covered in a recent The American Lawyer article (subscription required) in which LCLD president Robert Grey explained that the “purpose was to create transparency and accountability, but also to create an opportunity where there could be more learning and piloting of ideas by sharing with each other.”

Ms. Harker’s pledge is publicly available along with pledges from other LCLD members in the Leaders at the Front initiative section of LCLD’s website, and includes both individual commitments and commitments made on behalf of Friedman Kaplan on an organizational level.

“The importance of making specific, actionable, and public pledges to advance DEI in our firm and the broader profession cannot be overstated. I’m thrilled to have taken this step alongside other firm and corporate legal department leaders, and I look forward to further collaborating both with them and with the Friedman Kaplan community to realize the firm’s and my own personal commitment to the principles outlined in the pledge,” said Ms. Harker. “It’s exciting to see progress we’ve already made since publishing the pledge in January. For example, the firm is now participating in the most recently launched cohort of the Midsize Mansfield Rule, and we hosted two summer associates hired through the 1L LCLD Scholars program,” she added. 

Founded in 2009, LCLD is an organization of corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who have pledged themselves to creating a truly diverse U.S. legal profession. United by a spirit of activism and personal commitment, LCLD members participate widely in the programs they've created—leading by example, taking action, and challenging the legal profession to prepare future generations of diverse talent for the highest positions of leadership.