Chair of major law firm champions "sponsorship" pilot program Q:Why were you interested in starting a sponsorship program? Women have been graduating from college in greater numbers than men since 1985. Women make up nearly half of all law school students, aren't we "there" yet? Gardiner: We're nowhere near there. I'll be happy if I see my children live in a color and gender-blind society. That's the next generation. I think most law firms have gone through periods of trying to enhance entry-level diversity, with a fair degree of success. But the fall off of success, the ability to retain and develop (diverse talent) has been much less satisfying. Then along comes the notion of sponsorship, which is really quite radically different. Many of the more senior people in these organizations think diversity enhancement is some accommodation, an agreed-upon weakening of the organization. That's unconscious bias. Sponsorship goes right at that, and says, "No, wait a minute, you're completely misunderstanding here. The folks who are of a more diverse nature, whether gender, race, or ethnicity, are just encountering a different obstacle course to success than the relatively obstacle-free course that exists for white men. Q: How so? Gardiner: It has a lot to do with role modeling. An older white male sees himself in a young man and assumes this person is going to follow exactly same career path and have exactly the same responses to experiences that he did. Then he encounters a young woman who he finds oddly reticent and different and not responsive to all the stimuli that he responded to. So there's a mismatch. And that leads to a different level of progression and trajectory and familiarity. Why is it harder to be a woman or a person of color in the junior ranks of a professional services organization? The answer is not because you're less qualified. The answer is because you have this thicket in front of you. And you're pretty lonely. And so you try awhile. And then you leave. So the whole concept of sponsorship is to clear the thicket. When Ellen Dwyer, our managing partner, and I sat down to discuss this, we became convinced that it was a game changer. But we also realized it wasn't going to be easy. It's very labor intensive. It requires enormous trust. It's very hard for a young, say female associate to come into any senior person's office and ask for help. Much less describe what's complicated about her life. I had a young female associate come in and ask where the firm stands on work-life balance, because she was getting different messages from people at different levels of the organization. I thought, "No big deal, come talk to me." But it is a big deal for her to come and potentially expose herself to scrutiny as someone who is part time, who's trying to perform, with family constraints.