ABOUT MS&K |
Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp is firmly committed to develop and maintain a diverse workforce that reflects the community in which we practice. We believe it is important to attract and retain the highest caliber of attorneys whose wide-ranging backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and approaches enable us to best serve a broad spectrum of clients. To that end, the firm strives to sustain a work environment where all attorneys, and staff, feel welcomed, valued and energized about the contributions they make and the opportunities they have to further develop their careers.
The firm has a National Diversity Initiative Committee, co-chaired by Labor & Employment partner Samantha Grant and Intellectual Property partner Gregory Olaniran, comprised of partners and associates who reflect and are committed to increasing diversity at the firm. In furtherance of that initiative, MS&K is a signatory to the New York County Lawyers' Association's Diversity Statement, joining in its efforts to increase diversity in the legal profession. Moreover, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Bar Association have honored our firm for its commitment to the joint Call To Action campaign for the retention and promotion of women lawyers. We participate in the Managing Partners' Roundtable, and its corresponding Diversity Directors' Roundtable, and support the California Minority Counsel Program's education, business development and networking activities. Many of our attorneys are leaders on this issue, serving on Boards and committees that expressly seek ways to enrich the legal profession through diversity. Moreover, the firm encourages the active involvement of its lawyers in various minority bar and professional organizations, such as the National Bar Association, Langston Bar Association, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund), Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, WLALA Call to Action Committee, the South Asian American Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (of which Ms. Grant is President).
In the past few years, we have expanded our on-campus recruiting efforts to include law schools that have more ethnically diverse student enrollment, and we participate in national and regional job fairs focusing on diversity. As a result, both our summer associates and incoming class of attorneys were the most ethnically diverse in our history. As a result, both our summer associates and incoming class of attorneys were the most ethnically diverse in our history. In Summer 2011, 42% of our summer associates were diverse. That number increased to 85% in Summer 2012. Over the span of two years (2011-2012), 54% of our associate hires were diverse and 45% were female. In 2012, 55% of MS&K associates are female.
In 2008, MS&K celebrated its 100-Year Anniversary by endowing a $100,000 scholarship fund to financially assist socio-economically disadvantaged students attending the UCLA School of Law. By endowing The Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, Edward Rubin & Norma Zarky Endowed Scholarship Fund, honoring the memories of two seminal figures in the history of MS&K, the firm demonstrated its commitment to reinvesting some of its good fortune into the lives of promising law students who need a helping hand in order to pursue their dreams of a legal career. For the past several years, MS&K has also underwritten a scholarship presented annually by the Black Women Lawyers Foundation to a diverse and deserving law student.
