Janet Stone Herman, Class of ’84
Janet Stone Herman ’84 is Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Covington & Burling LLP. Previously, she was Director of Attorney Development and Women’s Initiatives at Morrison & Foerster LLP. She served on the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Association Board of Directors for nine years and was co-chair of the Student Outreach Committee.
What do you wish more people understood about diversity, equity, and inclusion?
The principles of DEI benefit the institution, and it takes everybody to foster inclusion and belonging in an organization. Sometimes people mistakenly believe that DEI is only for traditionally underrepresented colleagues, but that is not the case. DEI enhances the workplace for all.
Could you tell us about your career path, from starting a swim school before high school to becoming a DEI executive?
My career in law began when I attended this fantastic law school, and my first job out of law school was as a corporate associate for Hopkins & Carley, in San Jose, California. I was an associate there for almost ten years — along with King Hall alumni Nelson Crandall, Bob Hawn, and Suzanne Graeser. When an amazing partner I worked with at Hopkins moved on to Morrison & Foerster, he recruited me to join him. I was an Of Counsel in the corporate group at Morrison & Foerster for about six years. After a number of years of raising three kids, I switched careers — from practicing law to attorney professional development, and became the first Director of Attorney Development at Morrison & Foerster. Through that experience, I started noticing the need for attention to what was then called just diversity, and later diversity and inclusion, and now DEI. I stood up the first DEI committee at MoFo and hired their first diversity professional, who worked with me in Attorney Development. Over time, I focused both on professional development and DEI. And in 2021, I was recruited to Covington to be the DEI Director.
I was a competitive swimmer from the age of five. I had an entrepreneurial mother who decided that her children, who were all swimmers, could make some extra money by teaching kids how to swim in our backyard pool. We started off when I was ten, just teaching friends’ children how to swim in our home pool. The program grew in size, and at one point the neighbors complained. We had to apply for a use permit to operate a business out of our home, which was initially granted and then revoked. We went on to lease a much bigger pool at a local high school. In order to pay the rent, we had to expand, so over time I had fifty instructors each year.
We taught hundreds of kids how to swim every summer. I did that many, many summers, and it paid for undergrad tuition, law school tuition, and a down payment on a house. I have to say that this was a number of years ago, so all of those things were far less money than they are in today's dollars. But it was one of the best things I ever did. I learned a lot about hiring, training, and developing people. And frankly, there were elements of DEI back then, too. For example, some of the parents didn’t want boy instructors — I think they were worried that they wouldn’t be gentle with little kids. And even though I was just a teenager, I stood up for my teachers and would respond, “All of my teachers are wonderful. If there's a certain personality that you want, we can accommodate that. But we don’t assign teachers based on a preconceived idea of how they might interact with your child.”
What do you do when you aren't working?
The loves of my life, in addition to my three children, are my two granddaughters. Any time that I get to spend with them is just amazing. My kids live in big cities: Brooklyn, San Francisco, and L.A. My husband and I spend a lot of time visiting them and traveling when we can. I’m off to Spain right after I do this interview.
Why did you choose to attend King Hall?
It had a fantastic reputation. I went to Berkeley undergrad, and that was kind of a hard life and pretty impersonal. King Hall provided an opportunity for a more tight-knit community, which turned out to be very true. I had two interests from undergrad (Accounting and Organizational Behavior). From my background with the swim school, I was interested in both business and in family law, and I wanted the opportunity to figure out what type of law to practice. Through clinicals at King Hall, I decided on corporate. As an aside, I encouraged my son to go to Davis for undergrad because of the great experience that I had. He ended up graduating from Davis and interned with Darrell Steinberg, who was also my class year.
What is your favorite King Hall memory?
I have many favorites. But one stands out. The class of ’84 was the first class at King Hall that reached gender parity in the student body. In our first year, 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and we named our all-women basketball team at the law school “Justice O. and the Supremes.” (Class of ’84 Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who became the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, was a member of that basketball team.) I took a team t-shirt and the team photo to Washington D.C. and gave it to Sandra Day O’Connor’s clerk. I received back a personal letter from the Justice, saying of all the honors she received, that was the most unique and she hoped that we played basketball better than she did “or it would be a long, hard season for Justice O. and the Supremes.”
How have you stayed involved with King Hall?
I've stayed involved with King Hall through the alumni board membership of nine years. And I'm still in touch with many of my colleagues. The friendships that you make during that super intense time of your life just stay with you. I truly appreciate all my dear friends from the class of ’84 and how we continue to support each other.
Of what are you proudest?
That my children view me as a role model — someone who can have a successful career and be present for their family. That makes me proud.
Do you have any advice for current law students?
Obviously, I was Director of Attorney Development, right? So, I’m used to having these kinds of conversations all the time. I remind students that their career trajectory might not be experienced as a ladder; a career path might be more like a jungle gym. You may move straight to the top — right to the career goal you desired. But more likely you will move up, down, and sideways, and it’s perfectly fine not to know your ultimate destination. Moments in your career are like Lego blocks. You are constantly in the process of gaining experiences (both good and bad) — and each one is a block, a piece of something you can leverage into the career you are building. Every experience can be useful and help you gain professional clarity.
Be open to new opportunities. The career for you may not even exist when you first start out. For example, AI — who knew when I started law school that such an area of law would exist? Or DEI directors in law firms for that matter. Focus on building your connections, skills, and abilities, and figuring out what you like and what you are good at. Be flexible. And most importantly be kind to yourself and others.