...Wal-Mart set out [in June 2005] to use its market power to support its call for the law firms [it uses] to pursue increased "diversity" actively – by having more women and ethnic minorities represented at higher levels in their firms... "Wal-Mart will end or limit our relationships with law firms who fail to demonstrate a meaningful interest in the importance of diversity," it said [in a June 2005 letter to its law firms]. This month, the American Bar Association gave the company a national award for its efforts to promote diversity – ironically only a week after a federal judge ruled that a class action lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of systematically discriminating against its own women workers could go forward... Thomas Mars, Wal-Mart's general counsel,...says that the company's effort to bring about change at its external counsel followed its own internal revolution on ethnic diversity... Roderick Palmore, general counsel of Sara Lee,...launched a "Call to Action" in early 2004, which called on companies to take an outside firm's diversity record into account when assigning work... As a result of [a] review [of diversity at the law firms it used], Wal-Mart...stopped doing business with two firms... Ted Frank, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who previously practised at O'Melveny and Myers, described the move as "socially acceptable racism" in...his blog... The company says it is now launching a similar programme to promote diversity among its main suppliers. "To start with we're going to include our finance division suppliers and some of our key suppliers of food and merchandise," says Mr Mars.