Our Mission
Calfee is committed to a culture of inclusion and fairness that recognizes and values the differences among all of our attorneys and staff and has an ongoing goal of integrating these differences into the quality legal services it provides.
Diversity is a core value at Calfee and our strategy includes the recruitment, retention and promotion of attorneys and staff. In addition, we actively support community-wide diversity initiatives that allow us to contribute to the communities in which we work and live.
As Calfee strives to be the most sought after law firm for clients and legal talent alike in the State of Ohio, we are committed to having a business strategy that is constantly enhanced by a diverse body of thought. Our philosophy is to treat every person with dignity and respect. Our goal is to balance the execution of our business strategy with genuine concern for the human dimensions of the people that are Calfee.
Our Commitment
Recruitment
We solicit minority candidates for our on-campus and lateral attorney interviews, and also participate in minority recruitment and community outreach programs. We have been fortunate to attract, hire and promote talented attorneys through these efforts. In particular, our on-campus recruiting program for attorneys requires that diverse candidates be included in all interviewing groups, where possible. The firm rotates the law schools we typically visit each year, and each rotation includes a predominately minority law school. Our lateral recruiting for attorneys requires that all search firms include diversity as a key component of the search, and we have retained a search firm that specializes in diverse candidates. We also annually attend minority hiring fairs and have hired minority associates as a result.
Calfee is a charter member in the Cleveland Bar Association’s Minority Clerkship Program, a program designed to introduce minority 1L law students to working in a large law firm environment, and also participates in a similar program in Columbus. We also help sponsor minority law students in a judicial clerkship program.
Part of Calfee’s diversity recruitment strategy is highlighting both the large number of women attorneys in the firm (22% of the partners and 62% of all others, as of January 2008) and the fact that women are chairs or co-chairs of seven of the firm’s practice areas.
On the administrative side, women are directors or managers of seven of the firm’s business departments (accounting, human resources, library and information services, marketing, records, recruiting and professional development, and word processing).
Retention and Promotion
Calfee provides excellent client service by attracting talented, motivated individuals and promoting high standards of professional service. We give attorneys the freedom to develop their practices in the manner that best fits the needs of our clients. Appreciating the value of diversity - both in the firm’s overall environment and in rendering services in our communities - has been and will continue to be an integral part of our success. Calfee engages in an active mentoring program to help associates succeed.
Our individual differences are a collective asset that contributes greatly to a rewarding working environment and genuine understanding of those for whom we render services.
Pro Bono
Calfee is very active in pro bono activities in both the Cleveland and Columbus communities. As a firm we are committed to averaging 50 hours per attorney annually in community and pro-bono activities. We are a repeating participant in the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s volunteer initiatives, such as their Free Advice Clinics and Evening Law Clinics.
In Columbus, Calfee donates many hours of its time in legal services to the Microenterprise Program with Jewish Family Services; Franklin Park Conservatory; and OSU Fisher Business School Business Plan Competition, providing legal services to the winners of the challenge. The firm as a whole also is involved in providing services in conjunction with Lex Mundi’s Pro Bono Foundation.
Community Involvement
Calfee volunteers can be found all over our communities - from food banks to schools to Habitat for Humanity. In particular, Calfee is a service sector leader in various community diversity-driven projects, including The Presidents’ Council (participating in Boardroom-to-Boardroom, a program providing business and legal counseling to minority CEOs), Northern Ohio Minority Business Council and The Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.
The firm coaches East Cleveland’s Shaw High School Mock Trial Team; participates in the St. Martin de Porres Corporate Work Study Program, providing real employment opportunities to high school students with limited financial resources so they can afford to further their education; and partners with Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a program providing internship opportunities to East Cleveland and Cleveland Municipal School students to help develop skills necessary in today’s workplace.
We also fully support organizations such as Harvest for Hunger, United Way, Achievement Centers for Children, University Circle, Inc., The Cleveland Zoological Society and Goodwill Industries to name a few. In addition, Calfee is an active participant in all the community efforts of the Cleveland Bar Association, including the high school, year-long education program, 3R’s; Minority Clerkship Program; Minority Judicial Clerkship Program; high school internship program; and Buy-A-Book Program for inner-city schools.
Calfee also develops its own initiatives to remain active in our communities. The firm initiated a project in 2003 that organizes and networks Ohio’s most powerful women leaders in our communities. The Women’s Leadership Summit consists of two major events per year that bring together the top women rainmakers in order to network and create a connection between organizational and personal business goals.
In Columbus, our firm has dedicated itself to supporting both the arts and education through its own unique, annual program that also began in 2003. Calfee purchases 20-30 pieces of artwork from students at Columbus Public Schools (CPS), kindergarten through grade 12, that serves as the main artwork for the walls of the Columbus office. Calfee combines the recognition program with a donation to the CPS art fund each year. The Columbus office involves itself in the community in multiple other ways, including through organizations such as City Year Columbus, Children’s Hospital Foundation, TechColumbus, Children’s Hunger Alliance, Toys-4-Tots and through mentoring at OSU Moritz College of Law.
Diversity Suppliers
Calfee is a very involved consumer when it comes to support for Women and Minority Owned Business Enterprises (WMBE) suppliers. Since first being invited to join in 2005, Calfee has been an active participant in The Commission on Economic Inclusion, an affiliate group of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. To become a member, the firm had to commit to both increase and monitor our annual diversity spend. We are proud to say we have increased our annual diversity spend by as much as 50% since becoming affiliated with the commission. We have been recognized as a community leader (among service providers) several times for our continued improvement working with diversity suppliers.
In addition to requiring our vendor prospects to identify on their applications if they are minority or women owned, we also have retained the services of Supplier Gateway, a local Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) that specializes in finding and verifying qualified diversity suppliers. Supplier Gateway is a member of The Presidents’ Council, a Cleveland organization of African-American CEO’s whose mission is to increase the amount of spend with locally owned minority businesses by Northeast Ohio companies. Calfee is an associate member of The Presidents’ Council.
Every year we review our diversity spend and are continuously looking for ways to increase our use of minority and women owned businesses. We annually participate in MBE matchmaker events, such as the Annual Law Firm Matchmaker Event sponsored by the Cleveland Bar Association, and the annual event sponsored by the Cleveland Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. Calfee attends annually the Ohio Business Opportunity Fairs sponsored by the Northern Ohio Minority Business Council and the South Central Ohio Minority Business Council. Through these efforts we have developed new relationships that have proved to be a great resource for us in our continuing efforts to be cost effective and more productive for our clients.
With existing suppliers we constantly look for Tier 2 spending opportunities. Calfee encourages our major suppliers to look for ways to utilize MBE suppliers as they provide us with services and supplies.
Meet Our Diversity Committee
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Calfee’s discrimination policy - We do not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, creed, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other characteristic or status protected by law in the recruitment, hiring, retention and promotion. We maintain a meaningful non-discrimination policy applicable to each individual associated with the firm and conduct periodic educational sessions emphasizing the importance of maintaining an environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employees and partners are expected to foster and promote equal employment opportunity.
