BIZ Online NGLCC

As corporate America embraces diversity and the depth of experience that accompanies it, its counsels too are responding to the growing demand for inclusion of women, minorities and LGBT groups in their supply chains.

A number of law firms have taken the big step toward creating policies to ensure supplier diversity. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP—a prestigious national law firm with major operations in 13 U.S. cities—is one of them. Sonnenschein recently became the first law firm partner of the NGLCC and NGLCCNY.

Until now, the NGLCC Supplier Diversity Initiative had worked primarily with Fortune 500 companies like IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Morgan Stanley, Aetna, Intel, American Airlines, UPS and others. This partnership is a welcome foray into different and significant territory.

"This partnership is evidence that major law firms are also realizing that including the LGBT segment in strategic planning is good business and we couldn't have a better partner than Sonnenschein," says Chance Mitchell, NGLCC co-founder and CEO.

With 700 lawyers and other professionals in USA and Brussels, and a global reach throughout the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal serves the legal and public interest needs of a wide range of businesses, nonprofits and individuals. Founded in 1906, the firm leads in innovative legal services, serving its clients through integrated, inter-office cooperation and teamwork among practice groups to provide effective and timely legal services and business counseling.

Helise Harrington, the firm's diversity partner says, "This collaboration not only supports our firm by enriching the supply chain diversity that gives us a competitive edge, but it also ensures that our supply base looks like the associate and client base we have and the one we are trying to attract."

The NGLCC Supplier Diversity Initiative (SDI) offers businesses a tool to make connections and open doors with America's top corporations and each other. The SDI certifies LGBT business enterprises and works to provide them opportunities to gain exposure within corporate procurement processes. You can learn more about SDI here .

To learn more about Sonnenschein's supplier diversity program, click here .