At Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., we take pride in being "a law firm with a lifetime commitment to diversity and inclusion." From our very early years, we have provided employment and advancement opportunities for women, minorities, and persons from other traditionally excluded groups.
Started by two childhood friends in 1973, EpsteinBeckerGreen has developed through its founders' efforts into an 11-office national firm with a diverse workplace reflecting the USA of today. Cultivating our diverse workforce is a process that is always evolving. While statistics reflect our achievements to date (e.g., 26 percent of Firm members and 38 percent of Firm attorneys are women; 13 percent of Firm members and 51 percent of the overall staff are minorities), we continually evaluate and adapt our efforts, as needed, to increase and promote diversity at all levels within the Firm and the profession.
We are pleased that our policy of diversity and inclusion is being recognized. For example, The Minority Law Journal's 2009 "Diversity Scorecard" survey of minority hiring by the largest firms ranked EpsteinBeckerGreen 6th in the nation for partner diversity. The combination of the Firm's overall minority numbers with its high minority-partner numbers led to the Firm being ranked 17th on the overall survey. The American Lawyer's 2009 "Women in Law Firms" study ranked EpsteinBeckerGreen 8th in the nation among the 200 largest firms for its percentage of women attorneys. As a result, EpsteinBeckerGreen became one of only four law firms in 2009 to make the top 20 lists for the number of women attorneys in "Women in Law Firms" study and the number of minority attorneys in the "Diversity Scorecard." Also in 2009, Diversity & The Bar magazine's "Law Firms with Highest Minority Equity Partner Levels" included EpsteinBeckerGreen on a shortlist of 10 American law firms with between 20 and 99 equity partners, of which at least 9 percent are minority equity partners, and The National Law Journal's 2009 survey of the 250 largest U.S. law firms ranked EpsteinBeckerGreen 16th in the nation for the high representation of women among its partners.
EpsteinBeckerGreen's diversity is also reflected by the fact that women and/or minority Firm members are represented at the leadership level on all of our board and steering committees and at the managing shareholder level in Atlanta and Houston.
The Firm supports many events, organizations, and programs that advance equal justice and equal opportunity in our society. Here are just a few examples:
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EpsteinBeckerGreen has regularly sponsored programs of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Street Law, and other similar organizations.
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EpsteinBeckerGreen has underwritten a series of dinners around the country that have been hosted by the Firm's minority lawyers and founding shareholders to celebrate the achievements of minority corporate counsel. These occasions have provided networking opportunities for diverse in-house attorneys, as well as for the Firm's founders and other leaders, many of whom are themselves diverse. The most recent diversity event occurred in March 2009 in Coral Gables, Florida.
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Co-Founder Ronald M. Green and other Hispanic attorneys established the Hispanic Business Group, which includes attorneys from all of the Firm's offices who focus on the business and legal needs of the growing entrepreneurial Hispanic population in the United States.
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The EpsteinBeckerGreen Women's Initiative program was established to enhance the careers of professional women by providing opportunities both inside and outside the office to network, share information, acquire skills, and develop rewarding professional relationships. Over the past eight years, the Women's Initiative has hosted successful golf clinics, media skills workshops, wine tastings, and self defense classes around the country.
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EpsteinBeckerGreen's co-founder, Steven Epstein, fostered the creation and growth of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, which conducts a national internship program for African-American college men. The Institute is housed in EpsteinBeckerGreen's DC office. Mr. Epstein also serves on the Board of Directors of Street Law, a practical participatory education program that teaches young people in inner city high schools about law, democracy, and human rights. Street Law raises much of its funding through its Annual Gala, to which the Firm contributes its own financial support.
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Kenneth Standard, himself a minority, is a member of EpsteinBeckerGreen and its General Counsel. He also chairs the Firm's Diversity and Professional Development Committee, and is a past president of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), where he currently co-chairs its Diversity and Leadership Development Committee. The work he began when he led the NYSBA's Pipeline efforts, chairing its Committee on Outreach to Youth, has continued under the aegis of the Minorities in the Profession Committee, on which he also serves.
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On the national scene, Mr. Standard is a former member of the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, where he co-chaired an oral history project to document on videotape the stories of people of color who played important roles in the American legal profession. Currently, he is a member of the ABA Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Educational Pipeline and of the ABA's House of Delegates Minority Caucus. Mr. Standard also has raised substantial financial support for the pipeline organization Street Law (mentioned previously) through his work each year as a member of its Annual Gala Committee.
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Douglas Hastings, chair of the Firm, and Mr. Standard attended the "2008 Call to Action General Counsels' Diversity Summit," an effort to share best practices with law firms and corporate law departments. Messrs. Hastings and Standard are members of separate working groups formed to continue the effort of implementing the Call to Action.
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At the suggestion of David Matyas, a member in the Firm's Washington, DC office, the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) established an Advisory Council on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, which hosts diversity events at AHLA conferences, and a minority law student internship program, among other activities.
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Purvi Maniar, a member in the Firm's New York office, serves as the vice chair of the Business Law section of the North American South Asian Bar Association.
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Dean Singewald, an associate in the Stamford office, is an active member of the Connecticut Bar Association and serves as the chair of its diversity committee.
EpsteinBeckerGreen's diversity efforts also extend to supporting and promoting diversity in connection with sexual orientation, and a number of its partners, associates, and support staff are openly gay or lesbian. The Firm offers financial and pro bono legal support to (and one of our DC office associates is on the Board of) the Mautner Project, the National Lesbian Health Organization. EpsteinBeckerGreen also is a contributor to the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.