OUR COMMITMENT TO
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
TALENT. TEAMWORK. RESULTS.
Overview
Sidley has long been a pioneer in creating opportunities for lawyers of all
backgrounds, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual
orientation, religion, disability, gender expression or other characteristics.
We added our first woman to the partnership in 1956, at a time when most
leading law firms did not hire female lawyers at all. Likewise, in 1974, Sidley
was one of Chicago’s first major law firms to add a racially diverse lawyer
into its partnership. Today, 23 percent of our partners are women, as are
29 percent of Committee Chairs, 16 percent of our Practice Group Heads,
18 percent of our Practice Area Team Leaders, 27 percent of our Executive
Committee and 13 percent of our Management Committee. Ten percent
of our U.S. partners are minorities and two percent of U.S. partners are
openly LGBT. Of our minority and LGBT partners, 32 percent chair firm
Committees, nine percent lead Practice Groups and 11 percent are
Practice Area Team Leaders. Thirteen percent of our Executive Committee
members are diverse.
We believe that diversity and inclusiveness rank among the most
important attributes an enterprise can foster in its professional culture.
Diversity helps to build exceptional teams and incorporate multiple
points of view. Inclusiveness encourages good communication, respect
for colleagues and a culture of learning. Both diversity and inclusion are
critical components of a quality work environment and exceptional client
service. Our mission is to attract, retain and promote into partnership
and leadership positions outstanding lawyers of varied backgrounds who
reflect the global marketplace and communities that we serve.
Sidley’s mission includes developing new generations of lawyers to carry
on our commitment to excellence, integrity, diversity and collegiality. Our
commitment to fostering an inclusive firm and profession begins with
helping high-potential, diverse college students to attend law school.
Through the Sidley Prelaw Scholars Program and our involvement with
other pipeline programs around the country, we work to diversify the ranks
of lawyers entering the profession. That effort continues as we mentor
minority, female and LGBT law students, recruit a diverse group of summer
associates and continue to recruit diverse practicing lawyers.
Once lawyers join Sidley, we work wholeheartedly to integrate them into the
firm and support their career development. Through mentoring programs,
work allocation management, robust training and development, constructive
feedback, active support of associates’ diversity and inclusion programs
and networks, and education about the advantages of diversity and the
challenges created by unconscious biases, we cultivate an environment in
which all lawyers can thrive. The firm’s Diversity Committee, Committee on
Retention and Promotion of Women (CRPW) and diversity and inclusion staff
are charged with ensuring that our policies, practices and people reflect
both our values and our commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Firmwide Diversity Initiatives
1L Diversity Mentorship Program
Sidley’s 1L Diversity Mentorship Program provides rising 2L diverse students,
who are employed elsewhere during the summer in Chicago, Dallas,
Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Washington, D.C., with insight on the
practice of law. The program offers students career development strategies,
information about the on-campus interviewing process and an opportunity to
network with Sidley lawyers, judges and others in the legal community.
Sidley Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship
Each year, Sidley’s Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship is granted to a number
of second-year law students who receive and accept offers to join the
Sidley Summer Program. Selection considerations may include a student’s
exceptional academic achievements and leadership qualities, as well as
demonstrated contributions to diversity initiatives, an ability to overcome
adversity and/or other extraordinary contributions or accomplishments.
Support for Diverse Associates
Our Enhanced Mentoring Program pairs diverse associates with senior
partners in their practice groups to provide access to challenging,
skill-building work and important client and partner relationships. Associate
Diversity Committees, which function in various forms across our U.S. offices,
hold events and programs to help diverse associates connect with the
firm. The Take a Partner to Lunch program encourages associates to invite
partners to lunch to network informally, both in and outside of their practice
group. Sidley also supports diverse associates’ attendance at events hosted
by diverse bar organizations or community organizations.
Women at Sidley
Key initiatives include: Tips for Success programs for summer associates and
first-year lawyers; mentoring circles; community service; work/life programs
that support lawyers with families, including personalized coaching sessions
through the Working Parents’ Career Coaching benefit and an online
community for parents to share advice and resources; a reduced hours
policy for all lawyers; and programs that support the promotion of women
to partnership and firm leadership. Our Women in Leadership series brings
together clients and Sidley lawyers to hear from some of the most powerful
women in business, law, government and the arts. Our European and UK
offices also have active women’s initiatives.
LGBT-Inclusive Policies and Programs
Sidley was one of the first large law firms to grant parity in healthcare,
parental leave and other employee benefits for same-sex domestic partners.
In 2014, we adopted a comprehensive set of gender transition guidelines.
Openly LGBT lawyers practice in each of the firm’s domestic offices and serve
on the firm’s leadership and administrative committees. The firm also hosts
social, educational and networking events to support lawyers who identify as
LGBT. Incoming first-year LGBT lawyers are paired with an informal network
of LGBT mentors in their practices. Our Hong Kong office supports the local
Gay and Lesbian Attorneys Network.
Sustainable Diversity Initiative
Over the last four years, the firm has undertaken an internal education
and behavioral change program focusing on unconscious bias and cultural
competency in the workplace. This initiative has included U.S.-wide
educational programs based on social science and neuroscience research.
The firm has also conducted diversity training in its UK and European
offices. This training has been accompanied by changes in policy and
practice to minimize the impact of unconscious bias in the workplace.
About the Firm
Sidley Austin LLP is a premier law firm with a practice highly attuned to
the ever-changing international landscape. The firm has built a reputation
for being an adviser for global business, with 1,900 lawyers in 20 offices
worldwide. Sidley maintains a commitment to providing quality legal
services and to offering advice in litigation, transactional and regulatory
matters spanning virtually every area of law. The firm’s lawyers have widereaching legal backgrounds and are dedicated to teamwork, collaboration
and superior client service.
We have a broad transactional practice including corporate and
securities, joint ventures and strategic commercial transactions, mergers
and acquisitions, securitization, intellectual property, funds and other
pooled investments, bankruptcy and corporate reorganization, bank and
commercial lending, public finance, real estate, labor and employment,
technology and intellectual property transactions, tax and employee
benefits, as well as trusts and estates. Sidley consistently ranks among the
top capital markets firms in the Thomson Reuters league tables, both by
deal value and by number of deals, with strong showings as both issuer
and underwriter counsel in major security type categories, including
overall debt and equity, straight debt, asset-backed securities, investment
grade corporate debt and follow-on stock offerings.
We offer our clients extensive litigation and arbitration experience at
the trial and appellate levels, spanning virtually every area of law. Major
practice areas include commercial litigation, securities and financial
litigation, antitrust, white collar criminal defense, patent and other
intellectual property litigation, food, drug and device, healthcare, product
liability and other mass tort litigation, international commercial arbitration
and dispute resolution and international trade law.
We provide securities and derivatives enforcement and regulatory,
communications, energy, environmental, food, drug and device,
healthcare, insurance, life sciences and financial institutions regulatory
services to clients in virtually every major industry. Many lawyers in our
regulatory practices previously held senior positions in government
agencies in the United States, the European Union and Asia, where they
directly participated in legislative and administrative processes. This
experience, combined with our in-depth industry knowledge, allows us
to closely monitor legal developments and anticipate legislative and
regulatory changes to help our clients operate at the forefront.
Sidley values the recognition it has received in response to its leadership
in its wide cross-section of legal services around the globe. Those
accolades, which come from professional peers, publications and industry
journals and clients in numerous industries, include receiving the most
first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the U.S. News – Best
Lawyers “Law Firm of the Year” survey for 2016. BTI, a Boston-based
research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms
to have been in the top 10 of the BTI Client Service rankings every year
since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and was number one in three
of those years.
Accolades
••
Sidley was honored as the “Most Pioneering Firm for Female
Lawyers” at the Chambers Diversity Awards USA 2016. This award
recognizes a firm’s commitment to increasing the opportunities for,
and representation of, women lawyers.
••
Sidley was named to Vault’s 2016 “25 Best Law Firms for Overall
Diversity.” Law firms included in this ranking are rated highest among
their own associates based on the firm’s commitment to diversity.
••
Sidley was named by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time
Lawyers as a 2016 Best Law Firm for Women for the eighth time.
Sidley was among the 50 winning law firms praised for their
continued attention to work/life and women’s issues, as well as for
the use of flex-time, reduced-hour and other family-friendly policies
to ensure the success of women lawyers in the profession.
••
Sidley received a “perfect” 100 score in the Human Rights
Campaign’s 2016 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) report, earning
recognition on the organization’s annual list of “Best Places to Work
for LGBT Equality.” Sidley has received a “perfect score” since 2008.
Sidley was also named to the Equality Illinois 2015 list of the most
“LGBT-friendly” law firms doing business in Illinois.
••
In 2014 and 2015, Sidley won the designation of “Diversity Firm
of the Year” at the Benchmark Litigation U.S. Awards. Sidley was
noted by peers and clients as the litigation firm that has made
extraordinary efforts in regards to diversity and inclusion.
••
Sidley was named to the 2011, 2012, 2014–2016 Women in
Law Empowerment Forum list of law firms with Gold Standard
Certification, a designation for firms that have integrated women
into top leadership positions.
••
Client JPMorgan Chase honored Sidley with the 2015 “Joan
Guggenheimer Diversity Champion Award.” Other client awards
include the 2014 “Leadership and Excellence in Inclusion and Diversity
Award” from Morgan Stanley, the 2015 “Diversity Award” from
MetLife and the 2012 “Legal Department Diversity Award” from AT&T.
••
Sidley was awarded the “9th Annual International Innovations in
Diversity Award” in 2012 for its development of the Sidley Prelaw
Scholars Program.
••
In recognition of our firmwide diversity initiative, Sidley is one of
only three law firms to receive the Catalyst Award, given by the
leading research and advisory organization dedicated to expanding
opportunities for women in business.
Committee Chairs
DIVERSITY COMMITTEE CHAIRS
COMMITTEE ON RETENTION AND
PROMOTION OF WOMEN CHAIRS
FIRMWIDE CO-CHAIRS
FIRMWIDE CO-CHAIRS
Walter C. Carlson
+1 312 853 7734
Craig A. Griffith
+1 312 853 4604
Jennifer C. Hagle
+1 213 896 6015
Carlos A. Rodriguez
+1 212 839 5857
Maja C. Eaton
+1 312 853 7123
Jennifer C. Hagle
+1 213 896 6015
Laurin Blumenthal Kleiman
+1 212 839 5525
OFFICE CHAIRS
CHICAGO
Pran Jha
+1 312 853 4161
ASIA PACIFIC
Yuet Ming Tham
+1 852 2509 7645
DALLAS
Sara Garcia Duran
+1 214 969 3542
Yolanda C. Garcia
+1 214 981 3414
HOUSTON
Sergio A. Pozzerle
+1 713 495 4507
LONDON
Steven Pitt
+44 20 7360 2506
LOS ANGELES
Aimee M. Contreras-Camua
+1 213 896 6062
NEW YORK
Martin B. Jackson
+1 212 839 6726
PALO ALTO
Peter H. Kang
+1 650 565 7006
SAN FRANCISCO
Dale W. Lum
+1 415 772 1299
WASHINGTON, D.C.
OFFICE CHAIRS
CHICAGO
Elizabeth K. McCloy
+1 312 853 7657
CHINA
Gloria Lam
+852 2901 3863
DALLAS
Julia M. Chester
+1 214 981 3308
Michelle Hartmann
+1 214 981 3416
HOUSTON
Tracy N. LeRoy
+1 713 495 4510
LONDON
Nancy Corbett
+44 20 7360 3764
LOS ANGELES
Ellyce R. Cooper
+1 310 595 9522
NEW YORK
Laura M. Barzilai
+1 212 839 6739
PALO ALTO
Wendy M. Lazerson
+1 650 565 7065
SAN FRANCISCO
Marie L. Fiala
+1 415 772 1278
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Jennifer Haworth McCandless
+1 202 736 8912
Coleen Klasmeier
+1 202 736 8132
Ayaz R. Shaikh
+1 202 736 8154
sidley.com
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Prior results described herein do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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