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Mission and Initiatives
Mission
We are committed to increasing diversity in our firm. Our goals are to foster the recruitment and retention of people of color, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered law students and lawyers; to ensure that all lawyers have the opportunity to develop their talents fully; to create a firm whose composition more closely reflects that of our clients and the world in which we practice; and to promote greater diversity in the legal profession.
Initiatives
Our firmwide Diversity Committee is chaired by partners from each of our major US offices, and subcommittees in each office focus on strategic initiatives tailored to meet that area's unique practice and culture. The Committee, which reports directly to our Management Committee, oversees the development and implementation of firmwide initiatives, which include the following:
- To advance retention and career development, the Committee is establishing programs and procedures to provide attorneys of color, women, and GLBT attorneys with exemplary training, meaningful work and the highest quality mentors.
- To promote the involvement and accountability of all partners, the firm tracks each partner’s contribution to the firm’s diversity efforts and makes it a component of partner compensation.
- To foster a supportive and welcoming culture, the firm encourages and finances regular, informal gatherings for attorneys of color, women and GLBT attorneys. In addition, we offer those attorneys opportunities to participate in community and pro bono activities that provide practical skills, such as networking and marketing, and chances for involvement in the broader community.
At WilmerHale, we:
- Maintain ongoing relationships with minority, women and GLBT student and professional organizations.
- Recruit through job fairs and events sponsored by organizations such as the Boston Lawyers Group, the National Bar Association, the Lavender Law Conference, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Conference and the Harvard Black Law Student’s Association Conference.
- Strive for diversity in our lateral hiring, and we number several lawyers of color and women among our recent lateral partners.
- Are a signatory to the DC Conference on Opportunities for Minorities in the Legal Profession and to the Statement of Diversity Principles of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
- Have significant numbers of women and minorities in leadership positions, 19% and 13% respectively on our Management Committee (21% of our partners firmwide are women and 8% of our US partners are persons of color).
- Logged over 1800 hours in 2007 for committee member work in furtherance of diversity initiatives.
- Are a member of Catalyst, an organization dedicated to the advancement of women in business and the National Association of Women Lawyers, an organization aimed at advancing and supporting women in and under the law.
Recognition
- Our Co-Managing Partner William Lee, Partner Ronald Machen, and former WilmerHale Partner and current Director-Counsel and President of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, John Payton, were honored as members of The National Law Journal's list of “The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.” Read More
- The firm achieved a top rating of 100 percent in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2009 Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey. This index is a comprehensive annual rating of corporations and law firms with respect to their policies and environment for their Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) employees.
- We take pride in having been selected in 2008 (for the second year in a row) as a "firm of choice" for women in the Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers survey of the "Best Law Firms for Women" and as a 2008 Yale Top Ten Law Firm for Women.
- We are continually recognized in the American Lawyer "A-List", an annual compilation that lists the leading US firms and honors overall excellence, including financial success, commitment to pro bono work, workforce diversity and the training and development of younger lawyers. A-List scores are based on data collected from its annual Am Law 200, pro bono, associate satisfaction surveys, and the Diversity Scorecard compiled by its sibling publication, Minority Law Journal.
- The March 2008 issues of MultiCultural Law Magazine and Women 3.0, recognized WilmerHale as one of the nation’s “Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity” and among the “Top 100 Law Firms for Women.”
Leadership
Our attorneys are active participants and many have served in leadership positions in organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Bar Association, Women’s Bar Association, the Black Lawyers Association, the Association of Hispanic Attorneys and the Asian-American Lawyers Association. In addition, we were one of the founders of the Boston Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.
Our partner, Brigida Benitez, a top litigator with a national appellate and trial practice and a former president of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, was honored as Hispanic Business magazine’s Woman of the Year for 2005. She was chosen for this national honor in recognition for her “outstanding leadership,” “wide-ranging influence” and “service to the Hispanic community.” Each year the magazine chooses the woman of the year from its list of the 80 “most influential and successful Hispanic women in all sectors of business, government, and academia.” Ms. Benitez previously received the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Excellence in the Legal Profession Award for her victory in a landmark Supreme Court case, her professional achievements, leadership and her work in civil rights.
The firm is a corporate member of The Partnership and participates in its Boston Fellows program. The program is designed to retain and mobilize the leadership of professionals of color (in particular, African Americans) who are employed in corporations, law firms, hospitals, academic and other institutions throughout Greater Boston. Fellows are nominated by their employers and upon selection participate in the program’s monthly forums and activities, which acquaint them with the institutions and major sectors of the city and provide an opportunity to meet with Boston’s most influential people of color and key non-minority decision makers. Annually, several associates and partners participate in the Boston Fellows program and the Boston Fellows Alumni Organization.
In addition, our partner, Wendell Taylor, serves on the Executive Committee of The Boston Lawyers Group (BLG). The BLG is a consortium of Boston law firms, corporations and government agencies committed to recruit, develop, advance and retain attorneys of color. Several of our associates participate in the BLG’s Mock Interview Program. This program matches attorneys with first year law students of color. Attorneys conduct mock one-on-one interviews and provide constructive feedback regarding the students’ resumes and interviewing skills.
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