Sarah Garvey, Diversity Director in Los Angeles

Sarah Garvey is BCG’s nationwide Diversity Director. An attorney, progressive thinker, and advocate for inclusivity in all realms, Ms. Garvey works with candidates and law firms throughout the country to help ensure that diverse legal talent is accessed, cultivated, and celebrated.
 
Diversity Director Position
 
Ms. Garvey concentrates her recruitment and placement efforts exclusively on women and diverse attorneys. She is committed to making sure each of her candidates is given the time and attention they deserve to find their best fits within the profession—placements where they can progress, contribute, and thrive. She also creates content to help law firms understand the benefits of diversity and how to overcome systemic issues causing the diversity gap.
 
As an attorney who has practiced in a variety of environments, Ms. Garvey helped create the Diversity Director position at BCG because she wanted to do more to help strengthen and elevate her profession through increased diversity and inclusion. By channeling the resources of a leading national placement firm into the D&I space—and connecting talented diverse candidates with firms that seek them—she is an important part of the diversity pipeline.
 
Education and Experience
 
Ms. Garvey earned her B.A. in History summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College, Columbia University, and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law, she worked as a community organizer in low-income housing projects and on prisoner’s rights litigation. After practicing and becoming interested in the international implications of the rule of law and human rights, she travelled to Nairobi, Kenya and earned an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance at an intensive immersion program sponsored in part by the United Nations System Staff College and attended by humanitarian and human rights workers from around the world.
 
She is an attorney admitted to the bars of New York and California, and has worked in large and small firms and as a transactional lawyer and litigator. She began her career as an associate in the finance departments of the AmLaw firms of Milbank in New York and Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, representing agent banks on syndicated credit agreements and sophisticated securitization transactions. Most recently, she has been litigating Section 1983 civil rights cases in federal and state courts throughout California on behalf of victims of police misconduct.
 
In addition to her legal work, she is an accomplished writer, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and has written articles about Los Angeles-area judges, top women litigators, drug court, and veterinary relief efforts, among others. Her photography journey has taken her to a variety of interesting places including street fairs, political rallies, demolition derbies, churches and sacred spaces, and rural and urban America. She has had the privilege of photographing people from all walks of life including factory workers, ice fishermen, carnival workers, improv actors, bikers, Micronesian traditional navigators, people with disabilities, and countless others with whom her camera allowed her to share a moment of connection and common humanity. She has made documentary films about rodeo cowboys, wrongful convictions, sustainable economic development, and a high school mock trial program. She is drawn to meeting people of all kinds and backgrounds and helping them tell their unique stories.
 
Background and Interests
 
Ms. Garvey was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, where her father was a political science professor and her mother was head of one of Princeton University’s residential colleges. The family spent every summer (and a few very cold winters) in the small town in Northern Minnesota where her mother grew up. She has fond memories of sailing with her father, tending the vegetable garden with her grandmother, and visiting the White Earth Indian Reservation with her mother and grandfather, a small-town lawyer who did free legal work for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
 
In her free time, she enjoys yoga, hiking, reading, and cultural exploration. She also competes in the sport of dog agility with her mixed-breed dog. Some of her favorite books are Gilead, Peace Like a River, The Poisonwood Bible, Moby Dick, The Goldfinch, The Emperor’s Children, Wild, A Fine Balance, Coyotes, Random Family, No Matter How Loud I Shout, All the Light We Cannot See, and Run. Some of her most memorable trips were traveling by “night train” around India, going on safari in Kenya’s Masi Mara National Reserve, and scuba diving with whale sharks off the coast of Honduras.

Articles by Sarah Garvey, Diversity Director
 

• Five-Part Mindset for Legal Job Search Success
• A firm has given me an offer but wants me to take a cut in class year. Should I accept the offer?
• Attrition, Bias, and Other Issues Adversely Impacting Women Attorneys in Law Firms
• Overview of D&I in Law Firms and BCG’s Unique Role in the Diversity Solution
• Impediments to Diversity and Inclusion in Law Firms
• Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion for Law Firms
• How Law Firm Websites Influence Retention of Diverse Attorneys
• Can Rethinking the “Billable Hour” Lead to More Law Firm Gender Equality?
• Law Firms’ Continued Lack of Diversity: Scholars Provide Insight on Reasons and Solutions
• Corporate Clients Lead Charge for Diversity and Inclusion in Law firms
• Where Do Law Firms Stand When It Comes to Gender Equality?

“If Sarah is representing me, I know I will be working with someone who takes the time to understand me in-depth, is real and not phony, will bring out the best in me, and add value to my candidacy. Sarah understands her candidates and enjoys communicating this to others, she researches the market exhaustively for her candidates, and she does not take any information for granted. I can trust her commitment to me: that she will not forget about me and continue working with me as long as it takes for me to succeed. Sarah is not afraid to work in lots of markets and contact different types of firms for me. I know she will be responsive, is committed to the profession, wants to give guidance if needed, is direct, and will advocate tirelessly for me. She wants to connect with me, understand what makes me tick, and constantly update my resume as she learns new things about me. Sarah enjoys what she is doing and does the work because she believes it serves a larger purpose, so she is constantly positive and always improving and learning.”