Pillsbury announced today the appointment of Los Angeles Litigation and Employment partner Stacie Yee as the firm’s Executive Chair of Diversity & Inclusion. Yee succeeds former San Francisco Corporate partner Brian Wong, who served in that capacity from 2014-2018. In May, Wong took a job in-house with the legal department at Pacific Gas & Electric Company, a Pillsbury client.

“Diversity and inclusion are core to Pillsbury’s culture, so we are excited to welcome such a talented, collaborative and fair-minded partner as Stacie Yee as Diversity Chair,” said Firm Chair David Dekker. “Stacie has been a creative co-leader of our Women Attorneys Network. We’re confident that she will build on our accomplishments as a leading firm for diversity and inclusion through recruiting, retention and advancement.”

Yee added: “Clients, recruits and law school graduates have been taking a renewed look at law firms in terms of diversity and inclusion. Do firms have programs in place? Are they building diverse client teams, with diverse attorneys taking on meaningful, lead roles? Pillsbury has a long history of significant advancements in diversity and inclusion, but just about every large law firm can do better. Thankfully, Pillsbury has the interest and motivation to achieve real results. It’s an exciting time to be involved.”

In furthering diversity and inclusion at Pillsbury, Yee will work closely with Rosa Walker, the firm’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, as well as with partners Alicia McKnight and Brooke Daniels, who lead the Women Attorneys Network; and partners Rich Segal and Michael Reese, who co-lead the Pillsbury Pride employee resource group.

Yee litigates employment wage-and-hour, California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act, discrimination, and retaliation and whistleblower actions. She also resolves trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition and false advertising claims. Likewise, she provides preventative employment law counseling to help clients avoid litigation and advises on contracts, policies, terminations and other issues.

Prior to serving as Diversity Chair, Yee was the immediate past co-chair of Pillsbury’s Women Attorneys Network. In 2015, she was a Fellow in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity program, an organization comprised of corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners dedicating themselves to creating a diverse U.S. legal profession by identifying and preparing diverse attorneys for leadership roles.

Pillsbury brings innovation to more than just its legal work. That same pioneering vision directs our diversity initiatives. Among the first major law firms to promote women to partnership and the first large, national firm in the U.S. to elect a woman as its top leader, Pillsbury earned the 2017 Law Firm of the Year Award from Chambers Women in Law for furthering women’s career progression. Today, diversity is widespread in firm leadership; attorneys of color, women attorneys and LGBT attorneys lead our practices and offices and serve on influential firm committees. Year after year, Pillsbury’s inclusion efforts are recognized by Vault.com, the National Association of Female Executives and the Human Rights Campaign, among other organizations, and the firm has been named to Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies list for 12 consecutive years. To watch a video about Pillsbury’s inclusive culture, click here.