Haynes and Boone Recognized by Diversity Law Institute
December, 2017 - Dallas, Texas
The Diversity Law Institute, a nonprofit international association committed to inclusion in the legal professional and justice systems in the United States and Canada, honored Haynes and Boone, LLP for the firm's "excellence, involvement and efforts" to further diversity within the legal profession.
The award was presented at the 2017 Diversity Law Institute Summit & Awards in Philadelphia Nov. 3.
The Diversity Law Institute works to advance the interests of women and diverse attorneys in the profession and to aid in the administration of justice wherever possible. The organization has more than 3,700 members who are private practice lawyers, judges, in-house counsel and legal scholars and come from every U.S. state and the provinces of Canada, with some representatives from Europe and Asia. The group is affiliated with Litigation Counsel of America and the Construction Lawyers Society of America Fellowships.
The awards are presented annually to recognize achievement by law firms that have "practiced, advanced and/or promoted diversity and inclusion at the highest level."
Haynes and Boone's Attorney Diversity and Inclusion Committee, composed of partners, associates, counsel and key members of management, drives the firm's efforts to enact equality-related policies and programs; implement innovative initiatives to increase the hiring and retention of diverse and female attorneys; and address issues affecting working parents, LGBT attorneys and other groups.
Among other efforts, the firm has doubled the size of its 1L Diversity Scholars Program, which provides stipends and firm clerkships to diverse first-year law students, and hosts high school students for summer training sessions to get them interested in legal careers early. Haynes and Boone also devotes considerable resources to retaining and promoting diverse lawyers, strives to include diverse lawyers in decision-making and has made implicit bias training mandatory for all partners and associates.
The firm's diversity leadership has been recognized by Euromoney, Law360 Minority Report and Profiles in Diversity Journal. In August 2017, the South Asian Bar Association of North America presented Haynes and Boone with its Diversity Champion Award. And earlier in 2017, the Vault rankings put the firm in the Top 20 in the United States for diversity. The American Lawyer named Haynes and Boone the most-diverse large firm in Texas in 2016.
