Ladies and Gentlemen:
As African-American attorneys, we understand the challenges you face as you consider employment options with law firms and seek to discern which among them would value you as an individual, appreciate your ethnic and cultural heritage and provide a challenging and rewarding work environment. Arnold & Porter LLP is such a firm. Arnold & Porter has a long-standing and demonstrated commitment to diversity, and we strongly encourage and actively seek applications for summer associate and associate positions from African-American law students around the country. We are writing to emphasize our dedication to workplace diversity and to invite you to consider us among your many employment options as you chart your legal career. We believe that Arnold & Porter is unique among the larger national law firms in its devotion to a culture of inclusion and diversity. All aspects of an employee’s individuality, including his or her race and ethnicity, are embraced and cherished at Arnold & Porter. Our firm has demonstrated a commitment to improving recruitment and retention of minorities and to fostering an environment where individuals of all races and ethnic backgrounds can thrive. The following highlights some of our efforts and accomplishments in these respects. - Multicultural Law magazine ranked Arnold & Porter number 11 on its 2011 “Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity” list. The firm was also ranked on five additional lists, including: Top 25 Law Firms for African-Americans; Top 100 Law Firms for Women; Top 50 Law Firms for Associates; Top 50 Law Firms for Partners; and Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans. - Arnold & Porter has been listed on The American Lawyer’s prestigious “A-List” of law firms seven times since the list’s inception in 2003, based in part on the firm’s diversity. - Our Washington, D.C. office received the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s (MCCA) prestigious Thomas L. Sager Award an unprecedented six times in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2008, and our New York office won the Sager Award in 2003 and 2005. This award is given to law firms to recognize extraordinary commitment to diversity. In addition, in 2001, Arnold & Porter became the only law firm ever named an “Employer of Choice” by MCCA, an award ordinarily reserved for corporations. - Ranked by the Minority Law Journal as one of the top 25 law firms in its Diversity Scorecard 2011–2009 (based on the percentage of minority attorneys and percentage of minority partners). - The firm regularly supports and participates in Black Law Students Association (BLSA) events at numerous law schools across the country. - Our attorneys are founding members of and actively involved in the Washington, D.C. “Road Show,” a concerted effort by African-American attorneys in Washington to visit meet African-American students at law schools across the country and discuss the benefits and advantages of living and practicing law in Washington. - The firm actively supports the self-formed affinity group for lawyers of color, called “Minority Attorneys at Arnold & Porter,” or MAP. Since its formation, MAP has focused on retention and professional development for our minority lawyers and on initiatives to enhance their training, mentoring, and career planning. During the summer, MAP members serve as informal mentors to minority summer associates. - In 2005, Arnold & Porter was one of two founding firms to launch the D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Series. The series has attracted minority attorneys from private, corporate, and government practice, and provides a practical and productive way to enhance the careers and business development prospects of minority lawyers in our community. In 2007, Arnold & Porter took the lead in rolling out the Minority Attorney Networking Series to New York City. - Each year, at the firm’s expense, we invite all minority students to whom our U.S. offices have extended offers for associate or summer associate positions to a reception and dinner at our Washington, D.C. office. This annual gathering provides a unique opportunity for students to learn more about our firm and to speak with our partners, counsel and associates. - The firm has an extensive and mandatory diversity training program for all employees. This program is provided annually in all offices of Arnold & Porter for all employees who have joined the firm in the preceding year. The training program has increased sensitivity to and awareness of diversity issues at all levels of the firm and is an important part of our firm’s culture. Arnold & Porter believes that an essential component to maintaining and enhancing our diversity is our involvement in African-American communities at large and in outreach activities that are important to our African-American attorneys. Arnold & Porter actively supports or has supported many organizations dedicated to the advancement of African-American communities or African-American lawyers, including, among others, the Washington Bar Association, the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc., NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the Northeast Black Law Students Association. We believe in diversity. The senior management of our firm is personally committed to providing a welcoming environment to people of all backgrounds. We try to manage our firm in a way that promotes the treatment of every person with dignity and respect, that values the contribution that each person makes as an individual, that eschews all stereotypes or assumptions about people, that enables our colleagues to be comfortable being themselves, and that permits every person to realize his or her potential. For more information, we encourage you to visit the diversity section of our website, www.arnoldporter.com. We encourage second-year law students to contact us with any questions regarding Arnold & Porter. Please feel free to call us or contact us by e-mail. Our Senior Manager of Attorney Recruitment, Jennifer Gewertz, may be reached at 202.942.5798 or Jennifer.Gewertz@aporter.com, and each of the undersigned may be reached at 202.942.5000 or Darren.Skinner@aporter.com, Peggy.Otum@aporter.com, Kevin.Henley@aporter.com. Sincerely, Darren Skinner, Partner Peggy Otum, Partner Kevin Henley, Associate
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
Employment Opportunities/ ScholarshipsUVA BLSA Archives
September 2013
Categories
All
|