Foley & Lardner and Winston & Strawn are honored for sustained commitment to diversity
Sharon Barner of Foley & Lardner accepts Sager Award from Andrea Zopp, Sara Lee.
The Minority Corporate Association (MCCA) held its first of four MCCA/American Lawyer Media Diversity 2000 Dinner celebrations to showcase diversity. Two Chicago law firms were presented with MCCA's Sager Award for diversity in the legal profession. The Diversity 2000 Awards Dinner was held February 15 at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Chicago. More than 650 corporate executives and law industry professionals attended the event.
Foley & Lardner and Winston & Strawn were honored for developing and implementing effective policies and practices that have significantly increased the number of minority attorneys at their law firms. Accepting the awards for their law firms were Foley & Lardner's partner, Sharon Barner and Winston & Strawn's managing partner, Jim Neis.
"MCCA is proud and pleased to have the support of a number of general counsels and progressive law industry professionals," says MCCA's executive director, Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr.
The Sager Awards honorees have distinguished themselves by creating innovative and highly effective diversity initiatives to ensure more minorities and women receive opportunities in the legal profession. Major corporations, law departments and other law firms can learn a great deal from the models developed and implemented by the honorees.
FOLEY & LARDNER
Foley & Lardner have made exceptional strides in increasing diversity at their law firms. Nearly ten percent of the attorneys at Foley & Lardner are minorities. To date, ten out of one hundred and two attorneys in their Chicago office are minorities. Two of those ten attorneys are partners.
Foley & Lardner have done a great deal to recruit and retain minority attorneys. Each year, the firm provides eight (8) five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) scholarships to first year minority law students. When selecting law clerks, the recipients of the scholarship are strongly considered for the firm's clerkship program.
Foley & Lardner also supports and participates in several minority job fairs for the purposes of recruiting and hiring minority law students, and is an active member of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in large law firms.
WINSTON & STRAWN
Winston & Strawn has captured the Sager Award twice in the two-year history of the award. Last year, Winston & Strawn's New York office received the award. It is the first law firm to receive the award in two cities. Winston & Strawn of Chicago, developed and implemented one of the most effective diversity initiative of any firm of its size in the Chicago area. Two years ago, the firm created the Women's Initiative to increase women attorneys at the law firm. Later, the mission of that initiative was expanded to ensure more minorities receive opportunities in the firm as well. It was then renamed the Diversity Initiative.
Jim Neis of Winston & Strawn accepts Sager Award.
Winston & Strawn attempts to integrate diversity in key areas, including recruitment, retention, compensation, training, mentoring and orientation programs. The firm is committed to mentoring and creating incentives for supervisors to acquire mentoring skills and also encourages the participation of attorneys in organizations that promote diversity. This firm is not shy about its efforts to promote diversity. Winston & Strawn communicates to all staff and clients that diversity is a top priority. Progress reports highlighting its [diversity] success are distributed to clients on a regular basis.
Foley & Lardner and Winston & Strawn are shining examples of progressive law firms that have successfully met the challenge of increasing diversity at their firms.
The Sager Award was created to illuminate progressive law firms who define the social dimensions of the economy by aggressively recruiting and promoting minority attorneys. Named after DuPont Corporation's Associate General Counsel, Thomas Sager, the award is bringing greater awareness to the necessity of increasing diversity in America's law firms and corporate law departments.
MCCA profiles the Sager Award winning law firms and corporate law departments on its web site and via brochures that are distributed to the general counsel of Fortune 500 companies. The purpose is to highlight the positive effects that a diverse workforce has on the success of the legal industry at large.
Nomination forms for the Sager Award are distributed to law firms listed in the Martindale-Hubbell publication and are reviewed by the MCCA Awards Committee. Firms selected to receive the award have effectively articulated their commitment to diversity by meeting the following criteria:
- The firm has a diversity committee with senior partners who have insight into the needs and expectations of minority associates and partners;
- The firm has a recruiting program that includes participation at minority job fairs sponsored by professional associations and law schools;
- The firm has a mentoring program, creates incentives and requires supervisors to acquire mentoring skills;
- The firm participates and supports the activities of minority bar associations;
- The firm communicates to all associates that commitment to diversity is a top priority; and is an integral part of its overall employment goal.
From the May 2000 issue of Diversity & The Bar®