Yvonne Brathwaite practiced as a trial and litigation attorney for two law firms before moving "in-house" at McDonald's Corporation to pilot and manage a national litigation support program. She was subsequently chosen as National Diversity Director for Kelly Services, Inc's legal placement division. In the role, inspired by the DuPont Corporation pursuant to its convergence program commitment to diversity, Yvonne directed a new business segment devoted to recruiting, placing, measuring and supporting the hiring and retention of women and minority lawyers in Fortune 500 companies and for their law firms. After relocating to Atlanta and earning an MBA, Yvonne founded In House Only*, LLC. in 2003 as a woman owned and certified minority business enterprise that maintained her niche of diversity based legal placement.
As "diversity" evolved into an industry in itself, her business evolved into one with expanded definitions of diversity and a value driven focus on how candidates and clients measure its success. Yvonne measured her success on the basis of sustainable placements; how long and how well her clients retained her candidates. Although her candidates were usually classified as "diverse", she never led with "diversity" or even used it in her business name. Intuitively, she recognized from the beginning that sustainability is all that matters. Over time, her clients began to talk to her about sustainability not just in the context of her placements, but in the context of corporate sustainability roles that they thought she was particularly well situated to fill. As a result, Yvonne began to research corporate social sustainability (csr) from the context of where her clients, by industry cluster, were focusing their "sustainability" roles. In terms of areas where we are "particularly well situated to fill", they fell in the four primary categories that have become our focus: compliance and ethics, supply chain, government relations and external affairs. In addition, with the recognition that "sustainability" focus and influence may vary by company and department to department; we find ourselves in a position to also offer Chief Sustainability Officer(s) according to business priorities and models.
This business transition is due to extensive research and advice from clients and outside advisors. We are in ongoing discussions with these advisors, some new and some we have known for a long time, just as we are in ongoing discussions with professionals new and old that have been a part of In-House Only over the years. While we are immediately ready to serve given our foundation, our team is being re-developed alongside our business shift. We look forward to not only working with you but to formally introducing you to the rest of our team.