Patrick C. Dunican Jr.
Chairman & Managing Director Gibbons P.C.
Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey
Education: Seton Hall University Law School, JD cum laude, Iona College, BA
First Job: paper boy
What I’m Reading: Wall Street Journal, New York Times; NJBIZ; and industry news
Best Advice: The brilliant and hardworking lawyers of Gibbons P.C. teach me something new every day.
“The biggest challenge in managing a diverse workforce is ensuring that professional development and leadership training are effectively customized, so that all of our attorneys have access to education and training opportunities most applicable to their careers, skill sets, cultural competencies, and future potential.”
Supporting the Success of Every Gibbons Attorney
The diversity of the Gibbons workforce is one of the keys to our success. Through the Gibbons Women’s Initiative and Gibbons Diversity Initiative, my firm invests heavily in custom diversity training, programming, and networking events, as well as partnerships with external organizations dedicated to workplace diversity, including minority bar associations and women’s professional organizations. Members of our Diversity and Women’s Initiatives are also active in general industry and business organizations, so issues of diversity remain evident across the broadest business network. In addition, these two Initiatives host an esteemed group of corporate women, and minority executives and leaders, at every substantive legal and non-legal educational program—and civic and cultural networking event—they present.
The firm’s investment in our Diversity and Women’s Initiatives has been more than justified, in terms of visibility, connections, and business development. A multipronged strategy to promote our diverse attorneys is closely integrated with the firm’s overall business strategy, which helps these attorneys to establish, maintain, and expand close relationships with one another, clients, colleagues who can refer business, and potential clients in strategically-defined demographics. Our approach has led to stronger, more informed, and more innovative business solutions for clients, because it leverages a variety of perspectives and competencies and reflects the workplace diversity at client and target client companies.
More fundamentally, our commitment to diversity gives us a fresh way to position our firm and stake our identity in the marketplace.
The biggest challenge in managing a diverse workforce is ensuring that professional development and leadership training are effectively customized, so that all of our attorneys have access to education and training opportunities most applicable to their careers, skill sets, cultural competencies, and future potential. Through our heralded “Gibbons Academy,” we devote substantial time and resources to the training and development of all firm lawyers, while our “Gibbons Leadership Academy” curriculum addresses the necessary skills to build and manage a successful legal career, and advance to high-level executive positions. Gibbons leadership brings administrators of both training academies, and leaders of our Diversity and Women’s Initiatives, together with the goal of inspiring them develop ongoing, co-sponsored, dynamic programming—specifically geared to the development and advancement women and minority attorneys—that takes into account the distinct challenges these attorneys face and recognizes the unique opportunities they may have.
