Careers Why O’Melveny We Welcome Talent from All Backgrounds

We Welcome Talent from All Backgrounds

Our people are our greatest asset, and a people-first approach to DE&I ensures that our colleagues—regardless of their background or identity—excel at O’Melveny.

Through our pipeline programs, recruiting and retention efforts, and accountability mechanisms, we continue to double-down on our commitment to DE&I.

For much more on DE&I at O’Melveny, we invite you to visit the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion section of our site.

To help foster success long before law school, O’Melveny invests nearly half a million dollars annually in scholarship programs for elementary and high school students from underserved communities.
We offer The Coleman Fellowship, a program that recognizes first-year and second-year law students with a demonstrated commitment to public service, in alignment with William T. Coleman Jr.’s legacy, with a strong commitment to social justice or diversity and a desire to contribute to the firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
Our strategy includes focusing on creating a supportive environment in which our underrepresented lawyers can grow and thrive.

O’Melveny uses pymetrics, a cutting-edge assessment tool, in our recruiting process. Pymetrics evaluates candidates based on their potential, not their pedigree. Pymetrics uses a series of objective, behavior-based electronic “games” that measure candidates’ cognitive and emotional traits. Processed by machine learning and audited by artificial intelligence to remove any bias from models, pymetrics offers an objective data point that O’Melveny can consider along with résumés, grades, and interviews. This additional data point offers new information about candidates’ potential for success at O’Melveny while helping override the implicit biases that naturally seep into traditional recruiting methods.

O’Melveny offers diversity-focused leadership academies curated to its women, racial/ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys. The academies are combinations of intensive skill development and relationship building. They offer practical tools and approaches to manage unique challenges, progress careers, and help O’Melveny enhance its inclusive culture.
Through our DE&I Leadership Mentoring Program, the 26 members of our three highest leadership committees at the firm —our Policy Committee, Management Team, and Executive Team—are connecting with our mid-level racial/ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, and first-generation associates in a robust mentoring program.
O’Melveny has over 30 Employee Networks around the globe focused on identity, including age/stage, first-generation, gender, LGBTQ+, parenting, race/ethnicity, and religion. The Networks organize professional and client development activities, initiative community engagement, assist with recruiting, and enjoy social and professional functions.

Following an unprecedented self-examination of our internal structures and processes in an effort to root out systemic biases and achieve better outcomes for our colleagues from underrepresented backgrounds—what we called the Redesign Project—we identified nuanced adjustments and modifications that strengthened DE&I throughout the career journey of our O’Melveny colleagues—in spaces such as recruiting, lateral hiring, professional and career development, performance reviews, compensation programs, work assignments, and partner pipeline development, to name a few.