As Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) at Goulston & Storrs, Ayeshah Johnson leads the firm’s efforts to create and maintain a collaborative, opportunity-focused workplace environment for all the firm’s talented and diverse professionals. She collaborates with team members and the firm’s Inclusion Advisory Committee to develop strategies designed to improve the diversity of firm attorneys and to develop, implement, and monitor programs and processes that promote and sustain diversity, equity, and respect throughout the firm for historically underrepresented groups including women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities.

She also works closely with the Legal Talent team and firm leaders to ensure that our firm, practice area, and legal talent initiatives and programs are aligned with the firm’s values, diversity and inclusion best practices, the strategic goals of the firm, and the development needs of the firm’s lawyers.

As a leader in the D&I area, Ayeshah takes a collaborative approach to her work, which extends beyond improving workplace culture to community relationships and developing partnerships with outside organizations to assess inclusion strategies and deliver new approaches.

She is responsible for managing the firm’s participation in the Mansfield Rule Certification. Since 2019, Goulston & Storrs has earned Mansfield Certification Plus – the highest designation from Diversity Lab – for successfully reaching at least 30% diverse lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. Ayeshah leads our current participation in Mansfield 4.0, which includes lawyers with disabilities as well as women, lawyers of color and LGBTQ+ lawyers as part of the diverse candidate pool.

Ayeshah previously served as a D&I Manager at a 300-attorney law firm. She began her career as an attorney with a practice focused on human rights issues, including domestic violence and sexual assault. She spent six years as an Associate Director of Enforcement at the NCAA, where she helped establish and led the People of Color Employee Resource Group, which became an integral part of the organization’s business structure and helped increase engagement and professional development of the NCAA staff.

Ayeshah uses her extensive experience and innovative leadership to build Goulston & Storrs’ talent pipeline and to foster an environment where every team member’s human potential and leadership aspirations can be met.

*Ayeshah Johnson is not a practicing attorney.