Walk the Talk: Moving the Diversity and Inclusion Needle Forward

Lora joined SurveyMonkey in January 2017 and leads the company’s legal, equity, and compliance teams and initiatives.

Prior to SurveyMonkey, she served as Vice President, Legal-Corporate at LinkedIn Corporation, where she managed corporate securities, governance, M&A, and international subsidiary matters for the legal team. She led the internal teams on the company’s IPO, follow-on equity and debt offerings, all of its mergers and acquisitions, and the company’s $26.2 billion sale to Microsoft Corporation in 2016.

Prior to joining LinkedIn in 2010, Lora was in private practice for over 10 years, including serving as a partner in capital markets at Jones Day, and a shareholder at Heller Ehrman.

Lora holds a JD from UCLA and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kit Chaskin is the Director of Gender Initiatives at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Lorraine McGowen is a lead restructuring partner with over 30 years of experience representing clients from the US and internationally with entrepreneurial enthusiasm and a true passion for innovation seeking to maximize their recoveries or reduce their exposure. Lorraine advises financial institutions, syndicated lender groups, creditor committees and other parties from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Africa who seek to maximize recovery or reduce exposure. She also advises investors and acquirers of companies. She interfaces with auditors, government regulators, investment bankers and others, and develops and implements mediation and litigation strategies, and negotiates reorganization plans and complex corporate and finance documents.

Recent engagements include representing Toyota (one of the largest creditors with more than $7 billion in claims) in the highly complex global restructuring of Takata Corporation, one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of automotive safety systems, including airbags; representing financial institutions in connection with Puerto Rico’s $72 billion restructuring; and representing several PPA counterparties in the PG&E bankruptcy case. Lorraine is described by colleagues, clients and others as “tireless,” “driven, determined, dedicated and devoted” and “a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, multi-successful person on so many levels.”

Lorraine is a member of Orrick's Management Committee and recently completed two terms of service on the firm’s 11-member Board of Directors. She also currently co-leads Orrick's Automotive Technology & Mobility group and its global Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Initiative.

As a leading D&I advocate, Lorraine creates programs for the legal profession and the community. She was selected as a 2019 Rainmaker by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and as one of Savoy Magazine’s Most Influential Black Lawyers for 2018 and 2015, and received Legal Outreach’s Pipeline to Diversity 2017 Champion Award and the New York City Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion 2012 Champion Award. IFLR 1000 Rankings named Lorraine a leading lawyer in the U.S. She was selected by Direct Women to be a 2016 Board Institute member. She is a frequent speaker and author on bankruptcy and insolvency and diversity and inclusion.

Among her community involvement, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession and on the Advisory Committees for Legal Outreach and the Vance Center for International Justice of the NYCBA.

Caren Ulrich Stacy is a talent and behavioral science expert with more than 20 years of experience as the head of recruitment, development, and diversity for several of the world’s top law firms, including Arnold & Porter, Cooley, and Weil Gotshal. After co-founding Lawyer Metrics, a start-up company acquired by the Access Group that pioneered a “Moneyball” data-driven approach to lawyer recruitment and development, Caren created Diversity Lab to focus exclusively on closing the gender gap and increasing diversity and inclusion in the legal field. The Lab is an incubator for new and creative ideas that boost diversity and inclusion in law through the use of data, science, technology, and design-thinking.

Her work has been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and on Fox News.

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. In 2016, she was honored with Legal Momentum’s Women of Achievement Award and also selected from more than 500 entrepreneurs as one of the inaugural 10 Tory Burch Foundation Fellows.

Caren currently serves on the Legal Advisory Committee for the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League and as a Board Member for the US National Committee for UN Women. Her past leadership roles include serving as a Judicial Performance Commissioner (evaluating judges in the 20th District in Colorado), an adjunct professor for the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and as a board member for DirectWomen.

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.