Cleveland Jewish News: Supporting minorities important part of workplace culture

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Posted in Cleveland Jewish News April 22, 2019

Workplaces are becoming more diverse every day.

According to Marietta Pavlidis, partner-in-charge and diversity committee chair at Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs in Akron, and Richard Rymond, firm shareholder and member of the executive committee and board of directors at Reminger Co., LPA in Cleveland, businesses have a duty to support employees who identify with a minority group.

At Reminger, Rymond said the firm is “committed to promoting and maintaining a diverse and inclusive work environment.”

“This means having people from diverse cultures, experiences and backgrounds,” he said. “We focus on diversity in our firm through two initiatives, which include all our offices throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana: the diversity committee and the women’s leadership council.”

Reminger’s diversity committee has initiatives to recruit attorneys from all backgrounds by attending diversity conferences and career fairs throughout the country and sponsoring events geared toward promoting diversity in the legal community, Rymond explained.

 Its women’s leadership council also works to attract and retain female lawyers, focusing on community involvement to help women who work at Reminger to develop new clientele and expand relationships, he added.

Buckingham Doolittle also has a diversity committee, which is comprised of partners, associates and administrative professionals. It meets regularly to identify and address diversity-related challenges and initiatives, Pavlidis said.

The committee focuses on priorities, including improving the experience for all lawyers at the firm, promoting awareness and encouraging open and ongoing discussions, increasing the training opportunities for associates with diverse backgrounds, participating in outside organizations that promote diversity and providing open forums for communication.

“Buckingham recognizes that providing exceptional service to our clients can be best accomplished in a thriving, diverse and inclusive workplace,” Pavlidis noted. “We understand that different perspectives bring better and more creative solutions.”…

Read the full story in Cleveland Jewish News.