Case Study No.

The Case Study: The Law Offices of Dickinson, Stilwell and Gardner (DSG)

James Dickinson and Richard Stilwell opened their El Paso, Texas law office in 1963. It
has since grown to employ many people. Dickinson is now dead and Stilwell is retired.
The firm’s senior managing partner is now Charles Gardner. Gardner has been with the
firm for more than 20 years.

Today, the law office of DSG has five partners and 12 full-time associates. Additionally,
the firm employs an administrative manager (Linda Mendoza).

El Paso is a largely Hispanic (spanish speaking) community. For a variety of reasons, DSG
has historically not done a very effective job of hiring and keeping Hispanic employees.
Until very recently, none of the partners were Hispanic and only two of the associates
were. Five months ago, the firm hired a prominent Hispanic lawyer, Francisco Jauregui,
who was brought in as a partner, at a base salary higher than any other DSG employee,
with the exception of Charles Gardner.

The hiring of Jauregui has created a number of interpersonal issues at DSG. Many of the
associates are unhappy. They feel the company hired Jauregui because he could open
doors for the firm into the Hispanic community.

It was also clear that a “clique” or “group” was forming within the firm. It was made up
of Jauregui, Ms Mendoza, the two Hispanic associates, and one of the secretaries (all of
whom are Hispanic by background). Morale has suffered in recent months. Privately,
several employees have made complaints to Gardner such as “Linda gives favored
treatment to Francisco and the Hispanic associates,” “the Hispanic associates are
suddenly working on the most visible and important cases within the firm”, and “there’s
no future around here if you’re not Hispanic”.