Coalition marks 20 years advancing diversity in law

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Dadri-Anne Graham could be practicing law in Chicago. Matthew Robinson could be doing the same in Boston.

Robinson, a Maslon partner from St. Louis Park, and Graham, a Cargill senior commercial counsel who hails from Jamaica, took different paths in their legal careers. But both say they are here today largely because of Twin Cities Diversity in Practice (TCDIP).

A coalition of more than 70 law firms and corporate legal departments, TCDIP celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2025. Through TCDIP programming, networking and events — open to everyone — attorneys of all backgrounds work to attract, recruit, advance and retain attorneys of color and encourage them to make the Twin Cities their home.

TCDIP stands behind its mission to build “opportunity and community for attorneys of color and all who seek to advance an inclusive profession” even as the past year has seen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts get scaled back across the country, Executive Director Summra Shariff said.

“People really value community and connection and with the rapid pace of change we’re experiencing right now,” Shariff said. “We are one of the places where you can find a warm community to get engaged with. Whether you’re an attorney who was born and raised in Minnesota or someone who’s moving to Minnesota like I did 20 years ago, this is a great community to get plugged into.”

Connecting with TCDIP

Cargill’s Graham had attended Macalester College as an undergrad but was more interest in staying in Chicago after graduating from what now is the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. That changed after she met TCDIP representatives at an event the organization hosted in Chicago. She later attended a TCDIP recruiting conference in the Twin Cities and then took part in TCDIP’s 1L Clerkship program, which encourages students of color to apply to top-tier law firms and corporate legal departments.

Graham worked in a firm’s Minneapolis office the summer before her final year of law school, attending as many TCDIP events as possible. She continued at the same firm’s Chicago office as she finished law school, then had the choice of working in either location after graduation.

“It was a mix of the firm culture in Minneapolis and the also knowing that I would have this TCDIP built-in community that I decided I’d come back to Minneapolis even though Chicago is an option,” said Graham, a former TCDIP board member.

Maslon partner Robinson wanted to come home to practice after his graduation from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago. When he had trouble connecting with Twin Cities firms during his summer job hunt, TCDIP’s then director helped line up interviews with several firms. That set the stage for his return, at a time he was strongly considering accepting an offer from a firm in Boston, where he had been an undergrad.

“It quite literally paved the path that my career is now on,” Robinson said of TCDIP, where he also participated in the 1L Clerkship program. “I think about it all the time. I would probably be in Boston. I wouldn’t have met my family. I wouldn’t be down the street from my parents. I wouldn’t be at Maslon. I probably wouldn’t be a partner.

“It definitely opened a lot of doors and, most importantly, as an attorney of color who wanted to come home, who wanted to practice in the Twin Cities, who really enjoys it here, it gave me the opportunity to apply, to have the interviews that I was having trouble finding otherwise.”

Robinson attributed TCDIP’s longevity to “terrific leadership but also to a community that values the mission of TCDIP and is willing to invest financially but also with the time of extraordinarily busy people.”

In addition to TCDIP’s professional development, mentoring and networking offerings, Graham cited opportunities for socializing and meeting people from different backgrounds as just as important in keeping the organization going.

“TCDIP has done a good job of trying to create community, trying to create a sense of belonging with our diverse attorneys,” Graham said. “You always know you have this home of people as you move through life, through personal and professional things. That’s one thing that makes it really special.”

TCDIP history

Cornell Leverette Moore, of counsel and partner emeritus at Dorsey & Whitney, was one of five TCDIP founders. Another founder, former Robins Kaplan parter Thomas Kayser, knew of a program in Boston, where that firm has an office, that was identifying diverse attorneys who would be “interested in and interesting to large law firms and corporations and government,” recalled Moore, who said that, at 86, he still works every day.

As talks among the founders continued, Moore said, they went a step further to involve not only law firms in what would become TCDIP but also corporate legal departments, given the concentration of Fortune 500 companies here.

“There were people we knew in those companies and those institutions and we decided we’d do something different, and that’s how Diversity in Practice got started,” Moore said. “It’s been mimicked around the country now.”

Inclusion as competitive advantage

The Gray Plant Mooty firm, known as Lathrop GPM since its 2020 merger, also was a founding member of TCDIP, according to Brian Dillon, partner in charge of Lathrop GPM’s Minneapolis office. Dillon, who is ending a two-year term at co-chair of TCDIP’s board, said the firm’s local managing partner typically serves on the organization’s board.

“Some of the [board] members are my clients,” Dillon said. “Some of them are co-counsel in other law firms, or adversaries. We compete for talent in the market. We compete in the courtroom. But we all have found common ground in trying to enhance the diversity in the legal profession. We are stronger together than we are individually.”

Diversity helps in the competition for talent and in serving clients.

“Having a diverse workforce in our law firm and in the legal profession helps bring in a wider array of perspectives, different approaches to problems, different creative solutions and identification, perhaps, of different risks that people from similar backgrounds might miss,” Dillon said. “It leads to more creativity and better outcomes.”

Clients make clear that they want and expect their law firms “to be coming at the problems they present to us from all angles,” Dillon said. “Our clients have demanded it over the years. We’ve come to realize that we do our best work when we have diverse groups of people collaborating to deliver the work product.”

TCDIP and its board have been careful to craft programming in ways that is consistent with applicable law.

“We’re definitely clear-eyed about the changing legal landscape and the current administration’s perspective on DEI efforts and recent opinions from the Supreme Court on these issues,” Dillon said. “TCDIP programming has always been open to everyone. However, we move forward and react to the changing landscape, TCDIP is going to be around for another 20 years and 20 years after that and 20 years after that. We’re going to continue to do what is permissible under the law to create the inclusive legal department and legal community that we think is good for business.”

A few TCDIP member organizations left in 2025, but six new ones joined and more likely will in 2026, said Shariff, the organization’s executive director.

“We are creating opportunity and belonging for people from all backgrounds while also keeping the focus on increasing racial diversity,” Shariff said. “Our mission is still focused on racial diversity in the legal profession, because that is where the data will show we’ve made the least progress and where we continue to need to work, and that’s where our efforts need to be focused. But if we’re going to do this work, it has to involve active participation of attorneys from all backgrounds.”