A group demonstrates that diversity is not only the right thing ethically — it’s also great for the corporate bottom line.

By Julie Moline

For more than 30 years, long before diversity became a buzzword, chemical giant DuPont has been seeking out and hiring minority-owned and women-owned law firms whenever it outsources legal services. For DuPont, this route wasn’t taken just out of a sense of corporate social responsibility. The company also benefits immeasurably from the talent and superb services these firms provide.

DuPont, along with dozens of other Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Xerox, Accenture, Pepsi-Co, Nike, Aetna, Marriott, Domino’s Pizza, and Harley-Davidson, feel so strongly about supporting women- and minority-owned firms that they have become corporate sponsors of NAMWOLF, the National Association of Minority- and Women-Owned Law Firms.

The organization, based in Milwaukee, was founded in 2001 and has worked as a tireless advocate, building the case (literally and figuratively) that diversity is not only the right thing to do ethically, but the right thing to do for the corporate bottom line. Besides catering to the needs of its members, part of NAMWOLF’s brief is aspirational: It believes that the best way to increase diversity in the legal profession overall is through partnerships between big business and small law firms of exceptional ability.

How? Minority- and women-owned law firms hire and promote minority and women lawyers at much higher rates than majority-owned law firms. That, in turn, leads to more opportunities in the legal profession for minority and women lawyers. It’s a virtuous circle that ought to be imitated in many more industries.

NAMWOLF, like most associations, serves two constituencies: the buy side, which in this case includes the major corporations with diversity initiatives that encourage bidding by minority- and women-owned firms; and the sell side, the minority- and female-owned firms, which need to market themselves on a national scale but often lack the resources and expertise to do so. Having a blue-chip company as a client gives considerable legitimacy to a small law firm; hiring a woman- or minority-owned firm gives corporations a chance to put a mission statement into action.

For law firms, merely joining NAMWOLF adds credibility to visibility. Members are carefully vetted by NAMWOLF’s executive committee in a painstaking process that can take six to eight months. Once they’re in, NAMWOLF is committed to facilitating partnerships on their behalf. “We often find,” says spokesperson Yolanda Coly, “that companies want to hire women- and minority-owned firms, but have no idea where to find them. So we’ll help them locate suitable firms with the specialties they need. For our members, having an association act as an intermediary gives them access to potential clients they ordinarily wouldn’t be able to reach.”

The lesson to learn from NAMWOLF is this: Corporate procurement programs with a diversity element are an essential conduit to big business and prime contractors. Finding an association in your business’s field and joining its business networks is one of the smartest, most strategic investments your small business can make.