Stokes Lawrence wins 2009 Diversity Award
Stokes Lawrence is the 2009 winner of the Achievements in Diversity Award from the Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. The award, for firms with fewer than 50 attorneys, was presented October 21st at the annual Managing Partners Dinner.
Stokes Lawrence Honored with AT&T Legal Department Diversity Award
The Seattle law firm of Stokes Lawrence, P.S. was recently honored as a winner of the first annual AT&T Legal Department Diversity Award. The award was open to all U.S. law firms who represent AT&T. This is the inaugural year of the award, which the AT&T Legal Department created to recognize law firms for their efforts to increase diversity and inclusion within their firms and in the legal profession generally. Stokes Lawrence won in the small firm category and was the only firm from the Northwest to be honored. Read More.
Well over half of the Stokes Lawrence attorneys are women, and an equal number of men and women are shareholders. We have ethnic minorities and GLBT persons throughout our employee population.
We have a standing Diversity Committee with both lawyers and staff serving as members. This committee spearheads many of our formal diversity initiatives, which are designed to promote the hiring and retention of diverse employees to better reflect our broader community and to foster an atmosphere of inclusiveness. In addition to encouraging diverse applicants to apply for open positions, we ask the Minority Bar Associations to circulate notice of any attorney job openings to their memberships.
Following are several of our diversity initiatives:
DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS
We give scholarships annually to one first-year law student at University of Washington, Seattle University and Gonzaga University.
HERITAGE UNIVERSITY
We’re partnering with Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington, to encourage its undergraduate students to consider careers in law.
Heritage University’s mission is to provide high quality, accessible higher education to a multicultural population. Students of color comprise over 60% of the student body, and the vast majority of the student body receives need-based grants or scholarships. Our activities with Heritage include sponsoring the new Pre-Law Club, as well as a campus-wide panel discussion about careers in law. We award an annual scholarship to a student in the Pre-Law Club.
MINORITY BAR ASSOCIATIONS
Several of our attorneys are active in the Washington State Bar Association Committee for Diversity (including in the position of co-chair of the Committee), as well as in the various Minority Bar Associations in Washington. The firm actively supports its attorneys’ involvement in any of the Minority Bar Associations, and we have supported, financially and by attendance, the banquets and other activities of the following Minority Bar Associations:
Asian Bar Association of Washington
Latina/o Bar Association of Washington
Loren Miller Bar Association
Middle Eastern Legal Association of Washington
(one of the founding members and the President is a Stokes Lawrence attorney)
Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association
(we have provided pro bono legal services and have served as volunteer panel speakers)
Northwest Indian Bar Association
Q-Law (GLBT Bar Association)
South Asian Bar Association of Washington
(one of the founding members was a Stokes Lawrence attorney)
Vietnamese American Bar Association of Washington
Washington Women Lawyers
Washington State Bar Association Committee for Diversity
WOMEN
We’re proud that more than half of our attorneys, half of our shareholders, and our managing shareholder are women. We are a family-friendly workplace, providing paid family leave to all of our employees.
COMMUNITY AND PRO BONO ACTIVITIES
Our attorneys give generously of their time on community and pro bono activities, including those that benefit diverse communities. In addition to the Minority Bar Association activities mentioned above, following are examples of volunteer activities by our attorneys and firm:
- We partnered with several organizations in efforts to advance the property and domestic partnership rights of GLBT individuals, as well as the fight for marriage rights.
- We served as cooperating attorneys with the ACLU and The Defender Association in challenging the City of Seattle’s alleged disproportionate enforcement of drug laws against racial minorities.
- We represented a group of deaf women in a case challenging several municipalities’ practices in responding to domestic violence calls involving deaf and hearing-impaired women.
- One of our attorneys was a founder of the King County Bar Association’s annual Martin Luther King luncheon, and our firm continues to sponsor this event.
- We sponsor and support the King County Bar Association's Future of the Law Institute (FLI). FLI is an outreach program promoting the practice of law and law firm employment as career choices to Seattle area high school students of color. FLI also organizes a mentoring program, matching young attorneys with first year law students at the University of Washington and Seattle University Law Schools, and Stokes Lawrence attorneys have participated as FLI mentors.
EMPLOYEE TRAINING
All of our employees and attorneys participate in a training program that encourages respect for individual differences.
OTHER
We contribute generously to the Campaign for Equal Justice. We match up to $100 per employee for charitable contributions. We are enthusiastic participants in the annual legal community's Food Frenzy, which benefits local food banks, raising several thousands of dollars each year. In whatever way possible, we also support attorney and staff involvement with legal and community-based organizations. Community Service
It is encouraging to know that there are professionals who know that diversity is not a room full of the right people; rather, a room that is accessible to all.
JONATHAN YOUSLING, Winner, Stokes Lawrence 2009 1L Diversity Scholarship for Gonzaga University Law School.
Client List
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