Katten announced today that the firm has been recognized by the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms with the 2019 Change Agent Diversity Award.
“We are honored to receive this award. Katten is committed to driving change, diversifying the legal profession and fostering an inclusive and collaborative workplace,” said Katten Chief Diversity Partner Leslie D. Minier. “We have doubled down on our diversity and inclusion efforts because we recognize that diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and insight all contribute to the strength of our firm and result in more creative and strategic solutions offered to our clients to help their businesses succeed.”
The Chicago Committee seeks to engender more racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession by collaborating with its law firm and corporate membership. The committee’s goal is to drive sustainable institutional change at law firms and in corporate legal departments, provide professional development, and cultivate the local community of minority lawyers through programming and leadership opportunities.
Katten was selected for the award based on the firm’s mentoring and professional development opportunities, including sponsorship and leadership coaching programs pairing firm leaders with women and minority attorneys to enhance their skills so they are better equipped to achieve their career goals.
Other efforts include Katten’s certification for meeting the standards of the Mansfield Rule 2.0, which directs law firms to consider at least 30 percent women, LGBTQ+ and minority attorneys for significant leadership roles. Katten, one of the first law firms to complete the requirements for that pilot program, is currently participating in the third version of the Mansfield Rule, which broadens the candidate pool to include attorneys with disabilities.
Katten hosted its biennial Diverse Attorney Leadership Summit last year and the LGBT Attorney Retreat in August to empower its attorneys with strategies, tools and resources to build successful careers, as well as support the advancement of diversity and inclusion at Katten and in the larger legal community.
The firm regularly partners with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and participates in the Fellows and Pathfinder professional development training programs, as well as the Diversity in Law Hackathon created by Diversity Lab, an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in the legal field.
Additionally, Katten became a signatory of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, a business-driven commitment to share best practices for making the corporate workplace more inclusive.
Katten is a full-service law firm with nearly 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include commercial finance, corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, and trusts and estates. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, including a third of the Fortune 100, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com.
