MCCA Announces ‘Diversity Dollars’ Winners
MCCA board memer N. Cornell Boggs III (fourth from right) presents a Diversity Dollars grant to representatives of the Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations in June.
MCCA celebrated its 10th anniversary by naming 10 winners in its national 2007 Diversity Dollars Grant Program. The groups, ranging from local bar associations to national law foundations, will each receive a $10,000 grant to implement programs encouraging diversity in the legal profession.
The Diversity Dollars Grant Program is an annual national competitive program open to all attorney-based organizations. The grants are awarded based on the quality of proposals and the need of the organizations. The following ten awards have been made in 2007 to celebrate MCCA’s tenth anniversary.
- Association of Corporate Counsel’s Indiana Chapter will sponsor a career fair as part of its Diversity in Practice Conference in Indianapolis this September. The fair will help connect attorneys of color with law firms, corporate legal departments and other employers that recognize the importance of diversity.
- Council on Legal Education Opportunity will establish the CLE diverCITY Network, a cross-country network of law firms, corporations, nonprofits and government agencies to provide knowledge, best practices, benchmarking and direct access for minority law students and recent law school graduates.
- Association of Corporate Counsel’s Delaware Valley Chapter is planning a new internship diversity pipeline program to give local law school students opportunities to experience corporate practice and to increase minority and gender employment in corporate law departments.
- Disability Independence Group of the Florida Bar will develop a workshop for graduating law students with disabilities. During the workshop, the students would meet with placement staff at Florida’s law schools. The group will also create a resource guide of employment-related materials.
- Diversity in the Legal Profession Committee of the Colorado and Denver Bar Associations will support a national legal diversity conference and career fair to be held in Denver this September.
- Gate City Bar Association of Atlanta will hold its inaugural Justice Robert Benham Law Camp at Georgia State University in June. The camp will introduce 20 minority high school students to career opportunities in the law.
- Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association will implement a professional development series—Appreciating, Accepting and Achieving Diversity—and host a diversity workshop to help minority law students and lawyers in South Florida advance in legal careers.
- Just the Beginning Foundation will use the award to support its nationwide Judicial Externship/Clerkship Program, fostering racial diversity among law clerks serving in the federal and state judiciary.
- King County Bar Foundation’s Future of the Law Institute will continue its award-winning program of encouraging minority high students in the state of Washington to pursue careers in law through experiential programs, mentoring, scholarships, and internships.
- National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Law Foundation will use their grant to fund an internship position to implement two diversity symposiums targeting law firms and corporations, develop a culture-specific mentoring program, and assist with an awards program honoring law firms and legal departments that promote diversity.
In 2008, a total allotment of $50,000 will be made available for the Diversity Dollars Grant Program. MCCA encourages all attorney-based associations and organizations to apply. A typewritten proposal should include the amount of the requested grant, estimated budget and timeline for the proposed plan, a detailed description of how the Diversity Dollars will be used, and how this will contribute to increasing diversity in the legal profession. All proposals must be submitted by March 24, 2008, for consideration.
From the September/October 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®