We support various internal diversity initiatives, program and groups designed to recruit, train, mentor and retain diverse lawyers and staff.
Lawyers of Color
Throughout the year, we hold a robust number of events for our diverse lawyers. In October 2012, approximately 70 lawyers from our U.S. offices attended a firmwide lawyer of color workshop held in San Francisco.
We also sponsor town hall meetings in celebration of Black History, Asian-American Awareness and Latino/a/Mexican-American Months, as well as social gatherings for summer associates and associates of color.
LGBT Lawyers
MoFo is a standard bearer for LGBT rights within the legal profession. Our chair emeritus was the first openly gay managing partner of a major international law firm. Under his leadership, we expanded our benefits coverage to include same-sex partners, as well as health care tax offsets to lawyers and employees in same-sex domestic partnerships.
Women’s Initiatives
The firm works on an ongoing basis to engage with our women lawyers through office-specific events, ranging from social gatherings to lunch meetings to discuss topics of interest to women lawyers. Our current women’s events include Women on Wednesdays, a series of programs highlighting our women partners in various practice groups and offices. In June 2013, we hosted the second annual MoFo Summit for Women In-House Counsel. Approximately 90 women in-house counsel from more than 60 different companies participated in a day of presentation and CLE sessions, and had the opportunity to network with each other and many of our women partners. The summit was followed by a retreat for our women partners. The two-day program, which brought together women partners from across the firm, focused on developing the skills needed for women to advance within the firm and in the legal profession.