Spotlighting MCCA's 2001 Award Winners - Minority Corporate Counsel Association

Diversity Profiles of 17 Law Departments and Law Firms

MCCA publicly recognizes corporate law departments and law firms for their commitment to diversity. Last year, we awarded 17 organizations from various industries across the country. The honorees were selected over others for their distinguished diversity efforts.

In the profiles (see below), you’ll gain insight about these companies and why they captured our attention. Upon reading about what distinguishes them from other organizations, what you’ll find is that these award recipients have a high level commitment to diversity. Many have diversity strategies that were developed at the senior management level and they subsequently integrated diversity initiatives into their human resources processes.

Some of these organizations aligned compensation with their managers’ diversity goals. They also hire, train, and promote people with various cultural backgrounds and create an environment to retain employees. Additionally, their boards of directors or management committees support and reaffirm the business case for diversity and monitor its progress on an ongoing basis.

In 2001, MCCA presented three award categories. The “Employers of Choice” Award spotlights industry leaders for their commitment to diversity and success in building and maintaining an inclusive corporate legal department. The “Sager” Award recognizes those law firms that have demonstrated sustained commitment to improve hiring, retention, and promotion of minority attorneys. The “Rainbowmaker” Award, which was presented for the first time in 2001, recognizes outstanding individuals whose advocacy in support of a more diverse legal profession is beyond exception.

These awards were presented at a series of four diversity dinners in the following geographic regions: southwest, midwest, mid-Atlantic, and northeast.