Diversity Profiles of 22 Law Departments and Law Firms
MCCA® is proud to present profiles of its 2002 award winners. MCCA publicly recognizes corporate law departments and law firms for their commitment to diversity. In the pages that follow, you will read the profiles of 22 award-winning companies that were honored from various industries across the country. Through 2002, MCCA will have honored 76 corporate law departments, 24 law firms, and 9 individual leaders.
The honorees were selected as a result of their distinguished diversity efforts. Upon reading about what distinguishes them from other corporations and law firms, what you'll find is that these award recipients have several core qualities:
- diversity strategies developed at the senior management level;.
- integrated diversity initiatives into their human resources processes;.
- aligned performance evaluations and/or management's compensation with their manager's diversity goals;
- a high level of commitment to diversity communicated to all employees;
- hired, trained, and promoted people with various cultural backgrounds;
- created an environment focused on retaining employees; and.
- boards of directors or management committees that support and reaffirm the business case for diversity and monitor its progress on an ongoing basis.
The Employers of Choice Award spotlights industry leaders for their commitment to diversity and success in building and maintaining an inclusive corporate legal department.
Named in honor of the Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of DuPont, the Thomas L. Sager Award (Sager Award), recognizes those law firms that have demonstrated a sustained commitment to improve the hiring, retention, and promotion of minority attorneys and women.
These awards were presented at a series of five diversity dinners in the following geographic regions: mid-Atlantic, midwest, southwest, northeast, and western.
Sager Award Winners
Mid-Atlantic Region Winners
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P.,
(Washington, DC)
Arnold & Porter
(Washington, DC)
Northeast Region Winner
Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto
(New York, NY)
Southwest Region Winner
Haynes & Boone, LLP
(Dallas, TX)
Western Region Winner
Lord, Bissell & Brooke
(Los Angeles, CA)
Midwest Region Winner
Shook, Hardy & Bacon
(Kansas City, MO)
Employers of Choice Award Winners
Mid-Atlantic Region Winner
Fannie Mae
(Washington, DC)
Sunoco, Inc.
(Philadelphia, PA)
Wachovia Corporation
(Charlotte, NC)
Western Region Winner
Hilton Hotels Corporation
(Beverly Hills, CA)
Intel Corporation
(Santa Clara, CA)
Wells Fargo & Company
(San Francisco, CA)
Midwest Region Winner
Federated Department Stores
(Cincinnati, OH)
Illinois Tool Works Inc.
(Chicago, IL)
McDonald's Corporation
(Oak Brook, IL)
Sara Lee Corporation
(Chicago, IL)
Northeast Region Winners
John Hancock Financial Services, Inc.
(Boston, MA)
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
(New York, NY)
Philip Morris Companies Inc.
(New York, NY)
Verizon Communications
(New York, NY)
Southwest Region Winners
SBC Communications Inc.
(San Antonio, TX)
Southwest Airlines, Co.
(Dallas, TX)
Alea J. Mitchell worked for MCCA® as a summer intern upon her gradua- tion from Wesleyan. She is now employed at D'Arcy Advertising in New York City.
Jami Deise is a Washington, D.C. based freelance writer and copy editor.
From the December 2002 issue of Diversity & The Bar®