Franklin Brockway Gowdy,
Managing Partner, San Francisco office
The firm, founded in 1873, now has more than 1,300 lawyers in 22 offices worldwide. Morgan Lewis has a broad range of practices, including antitrust, business & finance, employee benefits, energy, FDA/healthcare regulation, intellectual property, investment management, labor & employment, litigation, personal law, real estate, and tax.
In the western region, 26 percent of all attorneys are minorities, and 42 percent are women. Thirteen percent of the partners in the region are minorities, and 24 percent are women. More than half of the firm’s new hires in the region are minorities, and 67 percent are women.
“At Morgan Lewis, we are proud of our accomplishments. Across our offices and practice areas, we have demonstrated success. Diversity is part of the fabric of the firm. We are honored to accept the Thomas L. Sager award,” says Brock Gowdy, Managing Partner, San Francisco office and Member of the firm’s Advisory Board.
Franklin Brockway Gowdy, Managing Partner San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, and Michelle Banks, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Gap, Inc.
Firm Chair Francis M. Milone has made diversity a key focus for the firm. To illustrate this commitment, Mr. Milone has made diversity the theme of the firm’s 2007 annual partner meeting, a bold step to emphasize the importance of diversity.
The firm sponsors many programs for its diverse lawyers, including an annual Attorney of Color Meeting. This event brings together attorneys and senior management from the firm’s offices to discuss diversity as it relates to clients and the firm. The meeting focuses on enhancing diversity as a key component of the firm’s business strategies. In addition, the firm sponsors events at the office and regional levels to support women in their careers. For example, the firm has hosted a joint program with a leading accounting firm for a women’s client development program.
The firm encourages policies that allow diverse approaches to life balance, and shows that there is not one right way to success. Alternative schedules are available to everyone in the firm and are no deterrent to advancement. In fact, 19 percent of the female attorneys who were elected to partnership in the past five years were elected while working an alternative schedule.
Morgan Lewis has created a Diversity Fellowship Program (DFP). Open to any second-year law student, the DFP awards salaried summer associate positions and $15,000 stipends to highly qualified students. The stipends are paid to fellowship recipients who complete the Summer Associate Program and accept offers of full-time associate employment with the firm.
Morgan Lewis was the first-ever recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Black Law Students Association’s Contribution of Distinction Award in February 2005, and in 2007 received the Corporate Partner of the Year Award from the Hispanic National Bar Association.
From the November/December 2007 issue of Diversity & The Bar®