The Daily Report Quotes Tashwanda Pinchback Dixon in coverage of Balch BLOCC Inaugural Professional & Business Development Summit

Balch & Bingham’s Inaugural Professional & Business Development Summit for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) attorneys was featured in an article on The Daily Report, a Law.com publication focused on Georgia’s legal community. 

Tashwanda Pinchback Dixon, partner in the firm’s Atlanta office and member of the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice, was interviewed by The Daily Report for the article published May 2, 2023 about her leadership of the summit and serving as chair for Balch BIPOC Lawyers Opportunities, Culture and Connection, or Balch BLOCC, an affinity group at the firm. 

The three day summit, held April 28-30, 2023, was in Atlanta, Georgia.

“It was great. Everything went off without a hitch,” Tashwanda was quoted as saying. “We have offices in several locations, and we felt like it was important for other lawyers of color to get together and get to know each other better so we can be a resource for one other, even though we don’t live in the same cities or work in the same offices.”

The summit was coordinated through Balch BLOCC, an affinity group the firm launched in 2022 to actively support BIPIC lawyers through monthly meetings that aim to foster professional development and cross-office mentorship.  

“It’s common knowledge [that] there’s a low percentage of lawyers of color who practice in law firms,” Tashwanda was quoted as saying. “There’s two parts to this: recruiting and retention. When we look at retaining lawyers, we looked at ways to support lawyers so they would want to stay and would thrive. We wanted to build that community within the firm.”

The summit focused on enhanced educational opportunities on client engagement, leadership and pathways to partnership, as well as firm economics and compensation.

“At the summit, for example, we talked about ways lawyers can be successful and also [have] resources available to help them navigate the law firm environment, because it is different than other workplaces,” The Daily Report quoted Tashwanda. “Also, [we let] them know about the marketing team or about the compensation process or mentoring. We wanted to give them that information and build that trust so we could be a resource for them and they could be a resource for each other.”

BLOCC highlights the unique challenges facing racially and ethnically diverse communities and promotes increasing and retaining the number of racially and ethnically diverse groups within the firm and throughout the legal profession.

Tashwanda is a trial lawyer who has successfully resolved a wide variety of labor and employment disputes as well as providing employment counseling and crisis management assistance. She represents management in both union and nonunion settings in the litigation of federal and state employment and labor law claims, with a particular focus on workplace safety and health (OSHA). She is experienced in litigating high profile and high stakes OSHA matters and is often called upon by clients shortly after devastating accidents to advise them through the OSHA investigation and litigation processes. Tashwanda is a member of the firm’s executive committee.