John Iino's law firm journey took him across the globe to Japan, where he was excited to connect with his roots. This experience set the stage for a career that would see him rise to the heights of the legal profession, not just as a lawyer, but as a champion for diversity and inclusion. In this episode of BS: Beyond Stereotypes, he chats with Merle Vaughn about diversity, identity and leadership.
John Iino is a passionate and recognized DEI leader whose mission is to drive change in diversity, equity and inclusion. With his experience as a global senior executive, corporate director, DEI professional, trainer, executive coach and speaker, John strives to achieve excellence and positive results.
John is the retired Chief Diversity Officer for Reed Smith (www.reedsmith.com), a global law firm with over 3,000 employees in 32 offices around the world. As CDO, he led Reed Smith’s mission to achieve equity and inclusion in the legal community from 2016 to 2023. Some of the most notable accomplishments as CDO:
- Increased firm's ranking in the American Lawyer Annual Diversity Scorecard from #120 to #22 (2017-2022)
- Increased number of diverse lawyers by 79% (2016-2022)
John's leadership has been recognized by the National Diversity Council as one of the Top 50 Chief Diversity Officers. He was also awarded a TOP 50 Diversity Star, the “Nation’s Best (Western Region)” by Lawyers of Color and received a “Diversity FIRST™” Award from the California Diversity Council. He was named among the top 500 ''Most Influential People in LA'' by the LA Business Journal and has been named ''One of the Nation's Most Influential Minority Attorneys''.
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