Breaking the bias in Big Law needs new ideas and economic incentives

Aviva Will, Co-Chief Operating Officer, Burford Capital

 IWD 2022

In-house law departments have a tremendous opportunity to #BreakTheBias in the legal profession by exercising their “power of the purse” to promote diversity at the law firms they hire.

To help in-house and law firm leaders #BreakTheBias, Burford Capital has expanded its award-winning Equity Project, a program to improve diversity in Big Law through a $100 million capital pool earmarked to finance commercial litigation and arbitration led by female and racially diverse lawyers.

With capital from The Equity Project, we help companies: 

• Augment their existing corporate Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and Environment, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG) goals
   
• Incentivize panel law firms to assign women or racially diverse lawyers to matters
   
• Start conversations with law firms about diverse representation and origination credit (an important metric for lawyer progression)

As part of our continued commitment to DEI in the business of law, we will share some of our profits when Equity Project investments resolve successfully and generate our expected returns, with contributions made on our clients’ behalf to organizations focused on advancing female and racially diverse lawyers.

I’m proud to be Co-COO of a company that is investing in the future of women and racially diverse lawyers.

At Burford Capital, the world’s largest legal finance provider, we built our business on making smart decisions based on a diversity of inputs and ideas—and that requires a team and culture that welcome, value and reflect diversity in all forms.