WASHINGTON —Marlene Aquino has joined Covington as its Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. Ms. Aquino will serve as Covington’s most senior administrative officer for diversity and inclusion and work closely with the leaders of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives and the Management Committee in setting and implementing the firm’s strategic plans and priorities for diversity and inclusion.
“The firm continues to view diversity and inclusion as a key priority, and these values fundamentally reflect who we want to be as an institution,” said Doug Gibson, Covington’s Chair. “We see Marlene’s addition as an important next step in fostering our diversity and inclusion efforts. She will be a key resource in helping us think strategically about the best ways to enhance our diversity and inclusion programs and practices.”
Ms. Aquino joins from Booz Allen Hamilton, where she was most recently that firm’s Chief Diversity Officer responsible for leading the diversity & inclusion strategy. She focused on implementing diversity and inclusion accountability across the organization’s leadership and developing a diverse pipeline of talent. In addition, she collaborated with leaders throughout the organization to support affinity-based programming and to foster innovative programs to provide safe forums for employees and leaders to have conversations around diversity and inclusion.
“Covington has demonstrated a clear and strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and I look forward to working with the firm’s leadership and lawyers at every level to continue the meaningful progress the firm has made,” said Ms. Aquino. “While more improvement can and should be made, I was struck by the diversity of Covington’s senior lawyers and how its senior female lawyers, lawyers of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyers constitute some of the leading practitioners in their fields.”
Covington has been at the forefront of the issues of diversity and inclusion. In 1994, Covington was the first Washington law firm to offer domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples and has achieved a 100-percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index for 12 consecutive years. In addition, the firm was a developer and founding adopter of the Mansfield Rule, an innovative program designed to measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women, lawyers of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyers for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions.
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