Proskauer Rose LLP is committed to creating a work environment and culture that embraces its core values of teamwork, respect, professional integrity and diversity. We understand that a diverse workforce enables the Firm to offer the highest quality of service to its clients by affording them the benefits of different and unique perspectives and approaches to legal issues. The Firm actively recruits candidates from a diverse pool of applicants in order to maintain and enrich a collective workforce that is reflective of a broad range of ideas and talent.
The Firm is committed to ensuring that time and attention are paid to our goal of attaining equal opportunity and diversity in the practice of law. We have enhanced our efforts by forming a national diversity committee comprised of representatives from each of the Firm's domestic and international offices. Partners, senior counsel, associates and other professionals play important roles in conceiving and implementing our diversity related programs and initiatives.
The Diversity Committee sponsors numerous programs throughout the year, including diversity training. The Diversity Committee also sponsors attorney affinity groups. The Firm currently has the following affinity groups: the Asian Lawyer Affinity Group, the Hispanic/Latino Affinity Group, the Black Lawyer Affinity Group, the LGBT Affinity Group, the Religious Observers Affinity Group, the Flex-Time Affinity Group and the Women Lawyer Affinity Group.
Proskauer currently recruits at over 40 different law schools, including law schools with significant diverse student populations such as Howard University School of Law. For a complete list of schools and career fairs, please visit, our recruiting schedule.
Proskauer also regularly participates in a number of career fairs that include:
- Harvard BLSA Job Fair
- Hispanic National Association Job Fair
- Lavender Law Career Fair
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Law Association of Greater New York (LeGal) Job Fair
- Newark Law Firm Minority Job Fair
- Northeast BLSA Job Fair
- Vault/MCCA Diversity Job Fair
In addition, the Firm annually participates in The Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Minority 1L Fellowship Program.
Proskauer's commitment to diversity is also an integral part of the Firm's Summer Associate Program and is evidenced by a number of diversity events sponsored by the Firm, such as:
- Asian Lawyer Affinity Group Summer Associate Event
- Black Lawyer Affinity Group Summer Associate Dinner
- Hispanic/Latino Affinity Group Summer Associate Dinner
- LGBT Lawyer Affinity Group Cocktail Reception
- Summer Associate Event Celebrating Diversity for All New York Attorneys and Summer Associates, which this past summer included a special screening of "Images in Black and White" a documentary originally aired on ESPN during Black History Month.
- Summer Associate/Women Attorney Lunches
- Women Lawyer Affinity Group Cocktail Reception
In connection with the Firm's lateral hiring efforts, the Firm takes extra measures by utilizing search firm agencies that specialize in the placement of experienced lawyers of color, LBGT and women lawyers.
Each winter, the Firm hosts a Diversity Reception for 1L students of color and LGBT students from law schools in the New York City area. In addition, Proskauer has also hosted a mock interview training program for Columbia BLSA students. The Firm has also recently become a sponsor of a few of the events held by Practicing Attorneys for Law Students (PALS).
We recognize the importance of developing formal and informal working relationships among lawyers at the Firm. To further enhance the Firm's diversity initiatives, we have implemented mentoring programs as one of the ways that we provide our associates, counsel and partners of color and our women and LGBT lawyers with mentors and additional resources and opportunities for continued success at our Firm.
Proskauer's commitment to diversity has allowed the Firm to sponsor, host and participate in a number of initiatives designed to increase diversity awareness and highlight issues important to lawyers of color and LGBT and women lawyers in the legal profession. Proskauer representatives also participate in numerous panels, discussions, and forums that promote diversity in the workforce such as The Association of the Bar of the City of New York's annual "What It's (Really) Like To Practice Law as a Woman in NYC", The Association of the Bar of the city of New York's conference on the "Best Practices for Hiring, Retaining and Promoting Women in the Law" and the 2004 NYU/LeGal "Out in the Workplace" panel.
In addition, we lend sponsorship and support to numerous organizations and events throughout the year that embrace diversity as a core value of the profession including (but not limited to): Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Sylvia Rivera Law Project; Boalt Hall African-American Law Policy Report; and the Brooklyn BLSA Power Professional Series.
The Firm and our professionals are actively involved in numerous national and regional organizations committed to enhancing diversity in the legal profession. Some recent Pro Bono cases include:
U.S. Supreme Court Case -- Johnson v. California
Proskauer Rose pulled off one of the most unlikely wins of recent years in the U.S. Supreme Court, convincing the Justices on behalf of Garrison Johnson that the California Department of Corrections most likely engaged in unlawful segregation.
Prisoner Johnson challenged the California Department of Corrections' unwritten practice of automatically segregating by race all male prisoners in two-man cells upon admission to and transfer within the California prison system. This practice was based on the belief that it would prevent violence caused by racial gangs. The High Court found that the segregation policy treads a fine line between security and equality, and when the two conflict, without more, security must yield. In its decision, the Court ordered the Corrections Department to prove the segregation policy is necessary to serve as compelling state interest under the strict scrutiny test.
Restoring the Legacy of Jack Johnson
Many Americans are unaware that the first African-American heavy weight boxer was not Joe Frazier or Muhammad Ali, but Jack Johnson. On Independence day in 1910, Jack Johnson defied the odds and became the first African-American man to prove that the world of sports was not solely for white America. His triumph, and the racial riots that resulted, led directly to a racially and politically motivated criminal prosecution and, ironically, to his erasure from the history books.
On behalf of a public interest committee lead by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, Proskauer Rose took steps to rectify this injustice. The Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson has prepared and submitted to President Bush an application to posthumously pardon Jackson Johnson. While such a pardon, if granted, will come too late for Johnson himself, it is an opportunity to recognize America's progress in the area of race relations, and we are proud to have played a small role in that process.
New York Wills Program
Twice each month, groups of attorneys and legal assistants from the Personal Planning Department of our New York office meet with clients of GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis), whom we have been paired with for the last seven years as part of the AIDS Project established by Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS).
The VOLS AIDS Project, which we have participated in since 1990, is designed to deliver estate planning and related services to low income, low-net worth persons with HIV for whom end-of-life planning is important. Our attorneys prepare wills, powers of attorney, health care proxies and living wills for most of the GMHC clients with whom we meet.
Our own sense of accomplishment is perhaps captured best in the words of our most active program participants: "My GMHC clients remind me that wealth is not limited by dollars," she says. "Compassion, fortitude, candor, optimism and humor are equally valuable. Those are the qualities my clients demonstrate during our meetings, and they are the qualities I strive to emulate, both professionally and personally. I am grateful for the opportunity to gain from those I assist."
For more information about Proskauer Rose's diversity and recruiting efforts, please contact Ms. Diane M. Kolnik, Manager of Professional Resources, at 212.969.5071 or dkolnik@proskauer.com.
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