Brightflag Product Update: Diversity & Inclusion Module

In recent years, more corporate legal departments have been taking meaningful steps toward building truly diverse and inclusive work environments. We’ve seen this reflected in research reports, industry initiatives, and conversations with our own customers.

One critical component of this process is ensuring outside counsel partners share similar perspectives and objectives with the in-house legal team. In short, do the work habits demonstrated by law firms match the diversity and inclusion goals held by their clients?

Confirming such alignment hasn’t always been easy. When in-house legal teams request diversity and inclusion data from their law firms, the responses they receive tend to arrive in a range of formats and with varying degrees of detail. This makes it difficult to draw effective comparisons, form valid conclusions, or initiate productive conversations in a timely manner.

Brightflag’s latest product update aims to improve the experience for both sides.
 

What’s New in Brightflag

The first step toward a solution is facilitating safe, easy, and accurate data collection. Brightflag achieves this by automatically sending a standardized, anonymized survey to timekeepers assigned by the law firm(s) our customer selects. Recipients can then enter details regarding:

• Gender identity
• Ethnic identity
• LGBTQ+ identity
• Disability status
• Veteran status

The next step is analyzing the collected data. Brightflag accelerates this process by presenting reports that highlight metrics such as:

• Percent of headcount by group
• Percent of hours billed by group
• Percent of value billed by group  

Brightflag customers eager to perform additional analyses can also access the anonymized data in CSV file format.

In consideration of local privacy laws, these new features are currently available only to Brightflag customers based in the United States.

How We’re Protecting Privacy

Privacy and security are priorities in all that we do. Brightflag already maintains strict compliance with all applicable data protection mandates, including the European Union GDPR, as well as information security standards set forth by the ISO and AICPA. But it’s important to underscore the additional measures we’re taking to safeguard diversity and inclusion data.

First, the survey was consciously designed to limit the capture of personally identifiable information. All data submitted by respondents is stored in a pseudonymized format.

Additionally, individual survey responses are never shared with colleagues or clients. The data is stored in a separate file structure than other timekeeper details, encrypted, and presented only at an aggregated (and fully anonymized) level within reports.

Lastly, all timekeepers have the right to opt out. They can choose not to answer some or all of the survey questions for any reason.

How to Use the New Tools

Despite the complex considerations that informed our engineering behind the scenes, the Brightflag user experience remains as easy as ever. As you’ll see in the video below, it only takes a few clicks to start generating diversity and inclusion insights that can benefit both client and counsel.

Want to Learn More?

Schedule your demo to see all the ways Brightflag is bringing newfound visibility to in-house legal teams and transforming their performance in the process.