Encouraging the use of minority- and women-owned law firms

E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. , Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have published for the first time a list of minority- and women-owned law firms that the companies have used in the past. They have sent the list to major corporations to encourage corporations to use these firms. They have also launched a Web site that lists the firms by state with contact information. Judges, juries and public officials are becoming more diverse, so companies benefit from using firms that offer a diverse set of lawyers who can identify with these decision-makers, said Tom Sager, DuPont's general counsel. DuPont also sent the directories to its 50 primary law firms, encouraging them to consider working with the minority- and women-owned firms and to share the information with colleagues.