Caren Ulrich Stacy

Founder & CEO, Diversity Lab & OnRamp Fellowship

Caren has more than 20 years of experience as the head of recruitment, development, and diversity with law firms such as Arnold & Porter, Cooley, and Weil Gotshal. In addition to co-founding Lawyer Metrics and serving as President from 2010-2013, Caren created and launched the OnRamp Fellowship — the first “Returnship” ever launched in the legal profession for women lawyers — through the Diversity Lab. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The National Law Journal, and on Fox News.

Background

Caren is the Founder of the Diversity Lab, which creates and invests in innovative talent management and diversity initiatives. The Lab’s hallmark project – the OnRamp Fellowship – has helped boost diversity in law firms as the first “Returnship” ever launched in the legal profession for women lawyers. The Fellowship has now expanded into corporations and financial services firms. Other current projects include:

• TakeALittleAction.com – Highlighting individuals and initiatives that advance women in law, tech, science, finance, and other industries to encourage support of their efforts. (The video and website were honored with the Catalyst #DisruptTheDefault Award in 2015)
• Culture Analysis – Facilitating the first empirical study with law firms, legal departments, and financial services firms to better understand the organizations’ overall cultures as well as the micro-cultures that exist in each group.
• The Judicial Diversity Initiative – Providing diverse lawyers with details on how to apply for state judgeships and a listing of current openings across the U.S. (Launching in 2016)
• WomenLegalExperts.com – Promoting successful women lawyers across the country who have been identified as experts in their field by Chambers and BTI. (Launching in 2016)

Prior to launching the Lab, Caren was the head of legal talent for top law firms for 20 years. She also pioneered a data-driven “Moneyball” approach to legal talent management through Lawyer Metrics, a start-up company she co-founded and led as President. Lawyer Metrics was bought by the Access Group.

Honors & Awards

As a noted talent management and diversity expert, Caren was awarded the National Association of Legal Professionals (NALP) Mark of Distinction in 2009, the InnovAction Award by the College of Law Practice Management in 2014, and the Ms. JD “Strength in Numbers” Award in 2015. In addition, Caren was elected in 2010 as a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management – an honor awarded to fewer than 200 individuals in the country – and appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Commission on Improving the Legal Profession in 2013.

Most recently, Caren and Steve Gluckman were awarded the 2015 Catalyst #DisruptTheDefault Award for their www.TakeALittleAction.com video and website.

Industry Leadership

Caren serves as a Judicial Performance Commissioner (evaluating judges in the 20^th District in Colorado), an adjunct professor for the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and a board member for DirectWomen.  She is also the founder and editor of the TalentThinkTank.com, a collaborative blog with more than 25 talent management experts. Over the past two decades, she has contributed to over 250 presentations and publications on talent management and authored several highly regarded books, including Loyalty by Design: A Practical Guide for Developing an Effective Attorney Integration Program.

Select Published Books & Articles

Books

• Foreword Author, “The Articulate Attorney”  By Brian Johnson and Marsha Hunter (Crown King Books, June 2013)
• Contributing Author & Editor, “The Six-Minute Marathon: A Guide to Life as a Lawyer” By Judge Andy Hartman (NITA, June 2010)
• Contributing Author, “Partners in Transition: The Five Phases of an Effective Partner Integration Program” (NALP Foundation, January 2010)
• Contributing Author, “How Associate Evaluations Measure Up: Identifying Effective Evaluations Criteria” (NALP Foundation, June 2006)
• Co-author, “Loyalty By Design: A Practical Guide For Developing an Effective Associate Integration Program” (NALP Foundation, July 2005)
• Contributing Author, “Best Practices in Attorney Professional Development – Conducting an Effective Needs Assessment” (American Bar Association, October 2004)

Articles

• NALP Bulletin, “Keeping the Keepers: Focusing on Lateral Associate Hires” (January 2014)
• Law Practice Management, American Bar Association, “Solving the Multimillion-Dollar C Player Problem” (May 2013)
• NALP Bulletin, “Behavioral Interviewing 2.0: Using Structured Panel Interviews to Identify High Performers and Eliminate Bias in Lawyer Interviewing” (February 2012)
• Bloomberg Law, “Everything You Think You Know About Lawyer Recruiting Is Wrong: The New Science of Evidence-Based Hiring Practices” (November 2011)
• The American Lawyer and Law.com, “Moneyball for Law Firms” (October 2011)
• West LegalEdcenter Newsletter, “Emerging Trends in Lawyer Development & Advancement” (December 2009)
• NALP Bulletin, “Moving From Lockstep to a Merit-Based Competency System” (September 2009)