Diversity

Cairncross & Hempelmann is committed to a culture of diversity that reflects the many communities to which we and our clients belong. We encourage everyone in our firm to draw upon their unique experiences, backgrounds, and histories to help us thrive and deliver excellence to our clients. To that end, in January of 2005, we formed a Diversity Team comprised of principals, associates, and staff members in order to bring renewed enthusiasm, new ideas, and greater consistency to our firm’s undertakings in supporting and increasing the diversity in the firm. In 2006, we received the Achievements in Diversity Award from the Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators. Now that the foundation is solidly in place, firm management is heading up our diversity efforts, with continued input from all levels at the firm.

On an external basis, our hiring efforts are more focused than ever on increasing our visible diversity (including ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc.) by adding minority attorneys and staff. Our firm also supports a variety of minority bar associations financially and in other ways such as staff support and hosting Board meetings in our offices.

On the attorney recruiting front, we have developed our own Diversity Fellowship for a second year law student, we participate in minority job fairs when we have positions available, and when we go to law school campuses to recruit, we make sure to visit such diverse schools as Howard University. We also make a concerted effort to utilize recruiting tools available from such organizations as the Washington State minority bar associations.

If you would like more information about C&H’s diversity efforts, please email Sophia Bell Lavin, our Director of Human Resources, and we will be happy to fill you in.