Convos with Cooley

In honor of Black History Month, we’re introducing “Convos With Cooley,” an unscripted series where Cooley’s Black leaders and friends of the firm discuss the topics that matter most to members of our community. Our goal is to normalize candid conversations that catalyze progress in diversity, equity and inclusion both inside Cooley and in our ecosystems.

Dean Garfield and Joe Drayton

Cooley's Joe Drayton and Netflix;s Vice President of Public Policy Dean Garfield discuss their career paths, including the pivotal moments that redefined and strengthened their interests and the competencies and attributes they leveraged to forge trajectories that align with their core beliefs.



 

Frederik Groce and Alex Knight

Cooley's Alex Knight and Frederik Groce, principal at Storm Ventures and co-founder of BLCK VC, discuss the overarching challenges faced by Black founders and investors, including a lack of access to capital and resources, along with where they are seeing progress in the ecosystem and how BLCK VC, Cooley and others are bringing structural solutions to structural problems.



 

Tanisha James and Ariana Shaffer

Antitrust partner Tanisha James and general corporate associate Ariana Shaffer discuss the unique challenges Black lawyers, and more specifically Black women, face in Big Law, touching on the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the tools and resources they're leveraging to overcome it.

The Black Executive Network (BEx)

The Black Executive Network is a forward-thinking community of CXOs, investors, innovators, lawyers and prominent influencers across a wide range of industries, companies and government. BEx is designed to build a sense of community and harness the power of diversity to yield high-impact relationships, collaboration and knowledge-sharing. We are proud to work alongside and represent these outstanding changemakers.