Stephen Poor is a regular contributor to Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business’ “Perspective” series, and his essay today is a grand slam. (Poor recently became chair emeritus after a 15-year stint as the chair of Seyfarth Shaw.) In “For Law Firms, Diversity is a Matter of Choice” Poor offers a compelling and blunt assessment of the failure of Big Law to take advantage of women lawyers—and what Big Law must do to remedy this ridiculous situation.

“At the turn of the century, Big Law was in the process of losing —wholesale —an entire generation of superb lawyers. This lost generation was composed mostly, but not entirely, of women. This is a generation that fell victim to an industry-wide epidemic of myopia,” writes Poor, who is based in Chicago.

He continues to discuss what must be done, including flexibility: “The work that remains is simply this: for each organization to tackle the critical work of evolving its culture, for every institution to actually support its talent in choosing alternative pathways, and for every law firm to embrace the spirit and intent behind its flexible work policies.”

His blueprint:

• “The first is the choice to take full responsibility for factors under the firm’s control and to take organizational ownership over outcomes and results.”

• “The second is the choice to engage seriously, collaboratively and in good faith with a new generation of lawyers coming into the workplace.”

• “The third is the choice to invest strategically and thoughtfully in new technology.”

Read the full article here. And share it with everyone you know who is fed up with this problem (and even better, send it to the people who do not understand that there is a problem).

Monica Bay is a CodeX Fellow and a member of the California Bar. She also is a freelance journalist for Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business, a columnist at Above The Law) and others. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay @StanfordCodeX.

Cover: Clipart.com