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Mentor
A little of column a… a little of column b. But yes A1 is correct.
Subject Expert
Good sign in that it means you’re well liked. It’s a good opportunity to be more visible at your firm. I’d take it personally.
Mentor
Definitely a bit of both. I noticed that the same women and minorities (especial minority women) were asked to head/run almost every non-billable committee and group at my firm. Several of us quit these groups after we raised concerns that were not resolved about the amount of time we were spending on these activities with seemingly zero credit from the firm (and occasionally even negative feedback for not focusing on billable work), while our white male colleagues were not required to do this work nor were there any consequences for their lack of participation. I’d say it’s overall a positive thing, but track your time (even if nonbillable) and don’t be afraid to set boundaries around the time you’ll commit to it.
Mentor
As ahead of time. We eventually negotiated 100 hours of billable credit for these groups. That made it easy to simply say no to requests that came in beyond that. If the answer is that there is no billable credit, I’d ask what the incentive or value is to associates that participates and how it will factor into performance evaluations.
I would definitely suggest joining, but go into with your eyes open about what you’re being asked to do.
It’s for free labor to make the firm look like they have members of affinity groups in visible roles.
Mentor
It’s free labor. They put one woman at my firm in charge of one of those groups while her partners were deliberately starving her of hours.
Affinity groups exist to make the firm look good. If they actually worked to increase diversity we’d see more diverse partners. Affinity groups aren’t exactly new… they’ve had plenty of time to “work”.
Mentor
Yeah at my firm at least the associates who are running these committees are generally highly regarded by partners and liked by other associates. So it’s not always one or the other.
Subject Expert
Yes
Coach
Tell me you haven’t watched Partner Track without telling me you haven’t watched Partner Track.
jk I think it’s a good thing. Congrats!