Diversity by Design: Axiom’s 2020 Diversity Report

We’re proud to share our 2020 diversity report, which reaffirms our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This year’s report revealed that Axiom’s lawyer bench continues to be more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender than industry standards. It also acknowledges Axiom’s commitment to diversity among its broader corporate employee and executive populations. It recognizes it as a critical mandate for performance, problem-solving, innovation, transformation, productivity, and resilience.

Highlights from the report include:

• Lawyers who identify as women represent 52% of Axiom lawyers, compared to 37% of all US lawyers, according to the ABA.
• Lawyers who identify as racial/ethnic minorities represent 29% at Axiom, compared to 14% of all US lawyers, according to the ABA.
• Employees who identify as women represent 57% of Axiom’s corporate employees and 37% of Axiom’s senior executives, compared to 46% of the US workforce and 29% of senior managers/executives across that workforce.

However, being better than an unacceptably low bar — within the legal industry and outside of it — is nothing to celebrate.

That is why a critical component of this year’s report is the introduction of Diversity by Design, Axiom’s programmatic framework for addressing systemic representation, retention, and advancement inequities. Diversity by Design represents both a core internal objective and a more far-reaching goal to amplify change throughout the legal ecosystem.

“We believe diversity efforts don’t add up, they compound,” said David McVeigh, CEO, Axiom. “Diversity by Design is an approach that is fundamentally internal to Axiom, but also one that we hope projects externally, amplifying the efforts of our clients and other leading organizations who are breaking down their processes and rewiring their operations. It’s a meaningful step toward overdue, enduring change — one we will continue to build, ruthlessly assess, improve upon, measure, and report against.”

Download the full report to access all of our statistics and learn more about our commitment to implementing Diversity by Design.