Building a Diverse Team
To provide opportunities for diverse lawyers, first we must attract them to join our firm. To that end, we conduct an aggressive outreach program to encourage diverse candidates who might not otherwise consider a non-coastal law firm. We conduct numerous on-campus informational and networking meetings at law schools around the country to introduce racially and ethnically diverse and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) lawyers to our firm. We also participate in a wide variety of diversity-related job fairs.
Diversity Scholarships
Our firm has established a scholarship program aimed at encouraging and supporting diversity in the legal profession by awarding $12,000 annually to each recipient to help pay for their final years of law school. Scholarship recipients will work as summer associates between their first and second year of law school. A key element of the scholarship program is a comprehensive mentorship designed to help recipients transition from student to practicing lawyer.
Our firm also established the Joe Montano Scholarship at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. The scholarship offers financial support to law students from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds in honor of former Faegre & Benson partner Joe Montano, the first Hispanic partner of a large downtown Denver law firm.
We regularly provide financial support to scholarship funds for racially and ethnically diverse students. These have included the Sam Cary Endowment Fund and the Frederick L. McGhee Memorial Scholarship, among others. The McGhee Scholarship was established by the Twin Cities Committee on Minority Lawyers in Large Law Firms.
Mentoring
We have found that a sense of belonging and community is key to retaining the best lawyers and staff. One of the ways our firm fosters that sense of belonging is through our formal, multidimensional associate mentoring program. Our diversity committee and diversity staff contribute to and support our associate mentoring program.
We also encourage, facilitate and reward less formal mentoring. Through a series of lunches and informal activities, our racially and ethnically diverse lawyers help orient the racially and ethnically diverse summer associates to the firm and the legal community. This effort also fosters ongoing and long-term mentoring relationships and opportunities. We also promote internal networking lunches and groups among our women attorneys, racially and ethnically diverse lawyers and GLBT lawyers and staff.
Staff Recruiting
Our support for a diverse workforce also extends to our administrative staff. We advertise all positions in local publications that serve minority communities. In 1992, we started an innovative training program for graduates of technical schools in the Twin Cities area to provide them the opportunity to become legal administrative assistants at our firm. Well over 20 percent of the trainees who have participated in this program are members of racially and ethnically diverse populations. For more information on job opportunities for administrative staff, please click here.