Hughes Hubbard was recognized as among the best firms for minority attorneys in Law360's 2018 Diversity Snapshot. The firm also made one of the biggest leaps up the rankings in The American Lawyer's 2018 Diversity Scorecard.
From left: Lisa Knight, senior IP counsel at American Express; Katrina Rainey, portfolio property manager at McDonald's Corp.; HHR partner Patrice Jean; Serena Farquharson-Torres, senior patent counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Kathy Card Beckles, general counsel at JPMorgan Chase.
Patrice Jean, co-chair of the firm's Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, has been awarded "Private Practitioner of the Year" by the Metropolitan Black Bar Association.
Jean was honored at MBBA's 34th Anniversary Awards Gala at Pier Sixty in New York. Hughes Hubbard was among the sponsors of the Gala.
Partners Sarah Cave and Aviva Wernick at a Hughes Hubbard Women’s Roundtable event.
Hughes Hubbard has been awarded the Gold Standard Certification by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) for the eighth consecutive year, one of only 12 firms nationally to have consistently achieved this recognition since the program's inception in 2011.
Hughes Hubbard's Diversity Committee, which helps the firm recruit, retain and promote attorneys of diverse backgrounds, is comprised of five affinity groups aligned by race, gender and sexual orientation. This series of Q&A articles introduces the leaders of those groups.
Meaghan Gragg, chair of the firm's LGBTQ Attorney Affinity Group, attends the 2017 ceremony on behalf of the firm.
For the third year in a row, Hughes Hubbard earned a perfect score of 100 percent on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation.
Hughes Hubbard associates Julie Amadeo and Brittney Cox with Ronald Brown alumni and AXA's Darryl Gibbs.
Hughes Hubbard is a recipient of the Ron Brown Trailblazer Award for the firm's efforts in helping to diversify the legal profession. The firm continues to support the Prep program and its mission. Every summer, the firm's New York office hosts the Prep program kickoff reception, which introduces students to their attorney mentors from the firm and its clients.
We have strategically placed lawyers with varied backgrounds in positions of influence throughout the firm, including office and practice leaders.
We have developed both formal and informal mentoring for diverse associates as well as all associates at large. In the case of diverse associates we offer additional mentoring from members of the diversity committee and affinity groups.
To maintain accountability, our Diversity Committee, comprised of partners, counsel, associates and staff, oversees our efforts, including mentoring, recruiting, retention, outreach and affinity groups.
We actively recruit law students of diverse backgrounds and offer a select group the opportunity to participate in our summer program, where they can learn more about life at our firm and develop their career goals.
Hughes Hubbard currently supports affinity groups for African-American lawyers, Asian lawyers, Hispanic lawyers, working mothers, LGBT lawyers and our women’s roundtable. The latter group offers firmwide video-conference sessions involving featured speakers and interactive workshops.
In keeping with our strong commitment to diversity, Hughes Hubbard is proud to be one of the initial signatories to The Association of the Bar of the City of New York's "Statement of Diversity Principles" and The New York County Lawyers' Association "Statement in Support of Diversity in the Legal Profession."
“When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.” Charles Evans Hughes
Our firm's commitment to diversity can be traced back to our founder, Charles Evans Hughes, campaigning for women's suffrage in his near-victory over Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 presidential race. In 1942, we broke ranks with other Wall Street firms in hiring the first female associate at a time when most of those firms did not even interview women. In 1969, we named as partner Amalya Kearse, the first African-American female partner of any major New York firm. Kearse went on to become the second African-American to sit on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In 1999, Candace Beinecke became chair of Hughes Hubbard, making her the first woman to chair a major New York law firm.
