George B. Vashon Innovator Award

The George B. Vashon Innovator Award (“Vashon Award” ) is presented to companies (not in the Fortune 1000) or law firms (less than 500 full-time attorneys) that have led the way with innovative best practices to assist diverse attorneys. It is named for scholar, abolitionist, and lawyer George B. Vashon, who was the first licensed African American attorney in New York State (1848) and one of the first admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court (1867).

Unlike previous years, this year, the MCCA determined the law firm honoree for the Vashon Award based on its extensive review of the MCCA Law Firm Diversity Survey submissions. Based on that extensive analysis of the firms’ demographic data as well as the corresponding quantitative trend data of each firm’s recruiting, retention and promotion efforts we selected our 2023 George B. Vashon Innovator Award winner, Beveridge & Diamond.

The 2023 George B. Vashon Innovator Award was presented to Beveridge & Diamond on October 10 at our Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference. Please join us in honoring their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

About George B. Vashon

George Boyer Vashon was a noted African-American legal scholar and abolitionist. He twice sought admission to practice law in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, but was rejected in both cases because of his race. In October 2010, after Vashon’s great-grandson, Duane Morris Chief Diversity Officer Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr., and others petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Vashon was officially admitted posthumously to the bar of the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

As a teenager, alongside his father who was an abolitionist and well-respected leader in the black community, Vashon co-founded the Pittsburgh anti-slavery society in 1838. He attended Oberlin College, where he was the first African-American to receive a bachelor’s degree. After he was denied the right to practice law in Allegheny County, he moved to New York and became the first licensed African-American attorney in that state. Later returning to Pittsburgh, Vashon became a principal at the African-American public school and served as president of Avery College. Vashon moved to Washington, D.C., where he was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and, in 1867, became one of the first black professors at Howard University. Vashon died in Mississippi in 1878 during a yellow-fever epidemic.

2023 GBV Innovator Award Winner

2022 GBV Innovator Award Winner

2022 GBV Innovator Award Finalists

2021 GBV Innovator Honoree

2020 GBV Innovator Honorees

2019 GBV Innovator Honoree

2018 GBV Innovator Honorees

2017 GBV Innovator Honorees

2017 GBV Innovator Finalists

LAW FIRM FINALISTS

CORPORATE LAW DEPARTMENT FINALISTS

Past GBV Innovator Honorees

MCCA is proud to honor and distinguish firms that tried something new and succeeded, whether in recruitment and retention, mentoring, pipeline initiatives, LGBT initiatives, or client inclusion feedback. Click below to view the complete list of our past George B. Vashon Innovator Award honorees.

2020


Groom Law Group
(Law Firm Honoree)

NFM Lending
(Corporate Legal Department Honoree)

2019


Thompson Coburn LLP

2018


Beveridge & Diamond PC
(Winner)
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
(Winner)

2017


Winners
Eversheds Sutherland LLP
(Law Firm Winner)
VMware, Inc.
(Corporate Law Department Winner)

Finalists
Eversheds Sutherland LLP
(Law Firm Finalist)
Miles & Stockbridge PC
(Law Firm Finalist)
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
(Law Firm Finalist)
Cox Communications, Inc.
(Corporate Law Department Finalist)
VMware, Inc.
(Corporate Law Department Finalist)

2016


WGL Holdings Inc. and Washington Gas
(Diversity Initiatives)
Winston & Strawn LLP
(Women’s Initiatives)

2015


Exelon Corporation
(Pipeline Initiatives)
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.
(Recruitment and Retention Initiatives)
Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation
(Mentoring Initiative)

2014


Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP (WTO)
(Women’s Initiatives)
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
(Retention Initiatives)
New York City Bar Association, Alliance of Securities and Financial Educators (ASAFE), Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley
(Pipeline Initiative)

2013


Prudential Financial, Inc.
(LGBT Initiative)
Pepper Hamilton LLP
(Pipeline Initiative)
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
(Mentoring Initiative)

2012


Prudential Financial, Inc.
(Diverse Attorney Spotlight Program)
Duane Morris LLP
(Recruitment and Retention)
Target Corporation
(Recruitment and Retention)
Goldberg Segalla LLP
(Pipeline Initiative)
Winston & Strawn LLP
(Mentoring Initiative)

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