Diversity and meritocracy

A strong argument for diversity in the workforce, particularly the professional workforce, was made in today's Wall Street Journal in an article about the way Philip Morris has succeeded in reducing lung cancer lawsuits and the amount of damages awarded in lawsuits.

The lead counsel for Philip Morris, a few years back, was about to address a group of 100 of his litigation lawyers when he realized that they were all white males.  I know, the article doesn't mention it, they were from the early 20^th century “upper crust” which Philip Morris originally thought would be politically helpful in local venues.  Boy, was Philip Morris wrong and they got to stew in their bigoted class idiocy with tens of billions in legal penalties.

New lawyers were hired and put in charge of major cases.  Just one of the new lawyers changed the whole direction of lung cancer lawsuits against Philip Morris. First she invented a new series of questions to measure prejudice against cigarette companies and got judges to use the questions to disqualify jurors.  Second she convinced judges to hold court from 8:30am to 1pm so working people could be on juries.  Working people are much less antagonistic to corporations than the unemployed and retired who sit on most juries.

Voila ... diversity and meritocracy, two of the four tent poles of commerce, are victorious in the real world.