General Counsel
Stacey Friedman has long recognized the importance of diversity in the workplace, and even spearheaded the Leading with Diversity initiative at JPMorgan Chase in 2018, which sought to put more women and people of color in key leadership roles. But the nationwide reckoning around racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd last year prompted Friedman to go further.
As general counsel — a role she has had for five years — Friedman brought together her counterparts at 11 other banks to pen an open letter to the global legal community, in which they collaborated to make a series of commitments aimed at fostering a more inclusive culture and combating racism and discrimination.
Among the commitments the executives made were pledges to provide increased opportunities for attorneys from a diverse background to lead services performed on behalf of a bank and to improve diversity, equity and inclusion training for legal department employees.
“Our culture and what we value and promote in our departments must recognize and account for the full breadth of talent, styles and perspectives, including those who are racially and ethnically diverse,” the letter read. “Our profession will be better and stronger for our having done so.”
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Friedman also advised JPMorgan Chase in 2020 when the nation’s largest bank chose to commit $30 billion to foster racial equity through a number of initiatives, including expanding affordable homeownership opportunities in underserved communities, improving access to financial services in predominantly Black and Latino areas and creating a digital lending product to provide minority business owners with fast access to capital.
A longtime champion of LGBT rights and gender equality, Friedman is also on the board of directors for the National Women’s Law Center and a founding member of the National LGBT Elder Housing Initiative Advisory Council, which advises the nonprofit organization SAGE on public policy.
