Patrick C. Dunican Jr.
Chairman and Managing Director, Gibbons P.C.
Corporate Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey
Website: www.gibbsonlaw.com
Primary Business: Law
Revenues: $111 million
Employees: 337
2011 CEO in Action
Since our founding in 1926, Gibbons has been headquartered in Newark, a city with a dynamic, diverse population from which we have always drawn a significant portion of our employee base. As long as we have been in business, we have seen in action the distinct value diversity brings to a workplace.
Gibbons is committed to attracting, developing, and advancing the best lawyers possible, recognizing that diversity adds valuable perspectives, experience, talents, and cultural competence that enhance the creativity and effectiveness of our legal practice and client service. Diversity also enables the firm to reflect the broader world we live in, allowing our employees to function, both professionally and socially, in a familiar, collegial setting that inspires their best work.
Our clients specifically seek out and value service providers with diverse workforces that include women and people of color at all levels, because they themselves increasingly have diverse professionals in decision making positions and because, as smart businesspeople, they recognize that diversity of viewpoints leads to the best possible work product. In addition, clients particularly appreciate our retention efforts with regard to women and people of color. The loss of continuity and productivity when an attorney leaves a firm, requiring his or her entire caseload to be transferred to other attorneys, is vast, interrupting optimal client service.
Our commitment to diversity also enhances the service provided to us in our own business operations. Gibbons strives to obtain the best quality and price for goods and services. Our supplier diversity program supports this goal by providing access to a larger pool of qualified providers. The professionals with purchasing power at our firm consider diversity an important purchasing criteria, assessing vendors based in part on their commitment to diversity and certification as a W/MBE.
A diverse pool of suppliers fosters competition and results in better service, price, and quality. W/MBEs are increasing at six times the rate of non-W/ MBE companies in the United States. It simply makes business sense for Gibbons to affiliate with such a fast-growing market segment. By forming relationships with these companies, we are working with potential future clients. By supporting W/MBEs that value diversity and inclusion, moreover, we help them to succeed and thus support our own corporate values: the more they succeed, the more likely they are to hire and promote a diverse workforce. This process of “paying it forward” serves to expand diversity throughout the entire business community.
Education: Seton Hall University Law School, JD, cum laude, 1991; Iona College, BA, 1988
First Job: Paper boy
What I’m Reading: The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Star-Ledger, and Record newspapers daily, NJBIZ magazine, and industry newspapers that cover law.
My Philosophy: Individuals affiliated with an organization should sublimate their own egos for the good of the organization. When making decisions never ask what is best for you, but rather what is best for your company.
Family: Wife Christina and children Morgan and Michael
Interests: New York Yankee baseball, New York Giants football
Favorite Charities: New Jersey State Bar Foundation; Seton Hall University School of Law
