Katten Commercial Litigation Chair Becky Lindahl Presents Winning Hackathon Pitch to Foster Greater Inclusivity

(CHARLOTTE) Katten announced today that Commercial Litigation practice Chair Becky Lindahl presented a winning pitch in Diversity Lab's "2024 Moments to Movements Hackathon" alongside teams of law firm and legal department leaders.

Lindahl was part of a winning team, "Control + Alt + Interrupt," which was awarded the Judges' Selection for its Leadership Escalator 10.0 (LEX) proposal presented in July at New York University School of Law. The two-part LEX concept includes tracking high-visibility work opportunities offered to attorneys so they can grow and advance in their careers and evaluating lawyer satisfaction with the quality of their work assignments.

"It was an incredible experience pitching our idea in a 'Shark Tank'-style competition to address how we can improve the general work allocation process so all attorneys can have equal access to the same opportunities as their colleagues and thrive," Lindahl said. "As a practice leader and from personal experience, I am cognizant of how work is assigned and how the type of assignments distributed can be critical to the professional development of attorneys, lead to advancement opportunities and impact retention."

Over the past few months, Lindahl worked with her team to explore actionable ideas and potential tools that could help ensure fair and equitable distribution of career-making opportunities and level the playing field for all talented attorneys.

Scoring hackathon criteria focused on impact potential, feasibility of adopting the concept, and progress measurement. Diversity Lab plans to further develop the winning solutions and pilot them with participating law firms and legal departments. Its inaugural 2016 hackathon resulted in the Mansfield Rule, aimed at creating inclusive talent practices and diversifying law firm leadership.

"At Katten, we care deeply about fostering an inclusive culture, which entails giving all our attorneys access to high-quality work so they can experience career growth and encouraging diverse perspectives that help shape the innovative solutions we provide to our clients," said Chief Diversity Partner Leslie Minier.