STATEMENT OF MARK CORALLO,
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS:

“Senior leadership at the Justice Department have made a real commitment to diversity in its attorney workforce by applying resources in time, manpower and substantial funding to the effort. Although the Justice Department’s attorney workforce is more diverse than the attorney workforce nationwide -- 15% minority and 38% women at the Justice Department, while the general U.S. attorney workforce is 12% minority and 30% women -- in February, the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General announced a series of new Justice Department initiatives aimed at strengthening the attorney workforce. The Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General wanted to do even better by intensifying outreach and creating incentives to serve in government - and came up with real initiatives that would have a positive impact on the Department.

“In a proactive effort to review the diversity of its attorney workforce, the Justice Department commissioned an independent study in 2001, and the initiatives announced in February were based, in part, on their findings. Since the announcement of the initiatives, the Department has institutionalized many of the initiatives, including but not limited to: announcing and recently advertising for a new Deputy for Recruitment in the Department's Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management, who will have among other duties responsibility for proactively identifying ways to recruit a more diverse applicant pool; instituting mentoring and career development programs; initiating diversity training for management; conducting exit interviews; and monitoring the Department's human resource management and progress in achieving the goal of a more diverse attorney workforce. Additionally, outside of consultant recommendations, the Department has been a forerunner by creating a federal student loan repayment program that this year awarded $300,000 from the Department's special project fund.

“The Justice Department discloses records requested under the Freedom of Information Act, subject to redactions made under federal law to withhold information pursuant to nine exemptions and three exclusions. In accordance with standard FOIA operating procedure, a senior, career FOIA officer recommended that the Justice Department make redactions to the independent report on attorney diversity based on a FOIA exemption that protects pre-decisional deliberative information - the type of information the Justice Department uses to determine how to best proceed and develop policy. These redactions were made pursuant to the law. The rest of the report was released and posted on the Department's website.”

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