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Diversity Newsletter
June 2015
A Note from the Chair – Diversity Developments at Mintz Levin
At this time of growth for the firm, I want to start with a welcome to all of our Mintz Levin Summer Associates. I encourage each of you to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity to learn and network throughout the firm. You will find the doors of senior colleagues open as they welcome the opportunity to share their wisdom and to be enriched by your viewpoints as to the future of the legal profession.
I am extremely pleased to announce that we will be celebrating a firm-wide Diversity Awareness Week during the week of June 22 – 26. During the week, we will be recognizing several milestones in Mintz Levin’s history and civic involvement, which have been key to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. As part of this celebration and as a follow-up to last year’s training to help recognize implicit bias in the workplace, we will be encouraging all employees to take the Implicit Association Test this month. The test is an enlightening tool for recognizing subconscious bias. We also challenge every firm citizen to “Do One Thing” in June (continuing a diversity initiative from last year), whether inside or outside the workplace, to enhance diversity in the legal profession. We will recognize the best “One Thing” firm-wide at a later date.
I commend the efforts of each of our affinity groups – the Women’s Initiative, MIATTY (the Mintz Levin affinity group for attorneys and senior professionals of color), and our LGBT group for their continued dedication in addressing concerns at Mintz Levin and representing the firm within diverse communities. These efforts are not only altruistic, but are essential to our commitment to sharing our clients’ values on inclusion. I want to particularly commend the efforts of Meredith Leary for her fantastic job initiating and facilitating thought leadership to enhance the development and support of our women attorneys.
Please take a moment to reflect on our recent activities on diversity listed below and let us know of any thoughts you have to enhance our efforts.
In This Edition
» Our Firm-wide Commitment to Diversity
» Fall MIATTY Retreat
» Lambda Legal Pro Bono Project
» A Screening of Walk the Walk
» Close-up: San Francisco Member Terri Shieh-Newton
Mintz Levin is committed to providing a workplace where every individual is treated with respect, dignity, and courtesy. We have several policies which support this commitment, including the Non-Discrimination Non-Harassment Policy in the United States, and the Anti-Harassment and Bullying Policy in the United Kingdom. These policies are part of our “Core Value” policies which are reviewed with all new employees during their orientation. The Core Value policies are distributed annually to employees and are posted on the Human Resources site on MintzPort. This past year, we also conducted training firm wide that included presentations by a trained actor as the basis for a facilitated discussion on implicit bias.
In January, the firm announced a new policy, the Mintz Levin Charitable Giving Policy, which provides guidance for charitable giving that aligns with the firm’s core values and our commitment to diversity. This policy not only applies to charitable giving by Mintz Levin, but also to Mintz Levin’s sponsorships of events and other programs.
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The Fall MIATTY Retreat was held in Mintz Levin’s Washington, DC office. The day-long retreat centered around the theme of “Getting to a Common Language.” The retreat agenda was coordinated by Fred Hernandez and Julie Muyco.
The early sessions included roundtable discussions about situations in which colleagues may seem to speak different languages. Midday events included an introduction to the history of the DC office, given by Bruce Sokler, followed by a presentation by our guest speaker, retired Rear Admiral A.B. Cruz., who is the General Counsel of Emergent BioSolutions. Admiral Cruz challenged the leadership of firms with whom his company does business to reflect their commitment on Diversity.
The retreat was capped by a panel discussion looking at the career paths of three women attorneys from different diverse perspectives. This discussion was open not only to MIATTY members, but to all DC office personnel and MIATTY alumni. The panelists were Angela Ball of NBC Universal (formerly with Radio One), Danielle McCoy of Fannie Mae, and Karen Vossler of The Brickman Group. The panelists not only told the attendees about their career journeys, but also responded to questions facilitated by panel moderator Tyrone Thomas regarding the importance of diversity to their respective companies. The attendees and panelists were invited to dinner to continue the discussion following the panel.
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Mintz Levin was asked by Lambda Legal and the ACLU to draft an amicus curiae brief in the same-sex marriage cases that the Supreme Court agreed to hear in spring 2015. Submitted on behalf of national adoption organizations, the brief discusses the harms that befall adopted children in families living in states without marriage equality.
The team includes Chip Phinney, Jonathan Shapiro, Kelly Frey, Mina Nasseri, and Katherine Fox.
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Mintz Levin’s San Diego office hosted the California Minority Counsel Program’s screening of Walk the Walk, a dramatic half-hour film about the ongoing challenges of diversity within the legal profession. The film is designed to jump-start a conversation about how to confront and overcome the current obstacles to creating a truly diverse workforce. Attendees gathered to view the film and then participated in a lively roundtable discussion.
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Terri joined the firm’s IP section in April of 2014. Terri has worked with emerging companies and universities as well as larger companies. Representative matters include work done for Genentech, Genencor/Danisco/DuPont, Abraxis/Celgene, Dynavax Technologies, the University of California, Stanford University, and the Buck Institute for Aging. Her doctoral research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine focused on the early immune responses to HIV and SIV infection. In addition, she was a student fellow with Nobel Laureates Dr. Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Michael Brown, researching farnesylated ras proteins.
ML: Tell us a little about your practice.
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I specialize in life sciences and clean tech, as it relates to biological sciences. I advise clients on patent prosecution, patent strategy, opinions, freedom to operate, and building patent portfolios. My practice has evolved since I joined Mintz Levin. I have been involved in several IPOs and deal financings from an IP due diligence perspective. It has been very interesting and a good opportunity for me to work with team members in the Life Science and Corporate sections. |
ML: Tell us how diversity is important to your clients.
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Diversity plays an important role in how clients decide on whom to engage as outside counsel. Many of my clients have explicit directives to engage vendors, including law firms, who promote and support diversity, and they often ask for proof of such programs and initiatives. I recently reviewed the outside counsel guidelines of two large household-name clients. Both sets of guidelines included extensive discussion on the expectation of outside counsel to field diverse teams to work on their matters, as well as the expectation that the outside counsel firms do as much as possible to promote and foster diversity within their ranks. Business can be won or lost with these companies based on our commitment to diversity – and that means a lot!
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ML: Why is diversity important to the legal profession?
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Diversity brings different perspectives to an issue, which ultimately results in a better outcome. Our clients, and in turn, their customers, are composed of a diverse population, so the more we can bring diverse thoughts and mindsets to an issue, the more thoughtful and powerful the solution will be.
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ML: What keeps you busy outside of work?
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I volunteer at my son’s school, and I serve on an education board for a Chinese immersion language program in Cupertino (Silicon Valley). I’m also active on my neighborhood association’s board. I love to cook and am a big foodie – I often read cookbooks to relax!
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ML: Share a little known fact about yourself with us.
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My secret ambition is to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
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Diversity Committee
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Tyrone Thomas, Chair
Member, Washington, DC
[email protected]
Theresa Carnegie
Member, Washington, DC
[email protected]
Jessica Clifton
Director of IP Operations and
Practice Management,
Intellectual Property,
San Diego
[email protected]
Shannon Davis
Director of Legal Recruiting,
New York
[email protected]
Peter Demuth
Member, Boston
[email protected]
Meryl Epstein
Member, Boston
[email protected]
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Michelle Gillette
Member, San Francisco
[email protected]
Kanasha Herbert
Associate, Boston
[email protected]
Fred Hernandez
Member, San Diego
[email protected]
Narges Kakalia
Member, New York
[email protected]
Heather Kelly
Senior Manager of Professional Development, Boston
[email protected]
Cynthia Larose
Member, Boston
[email protected]
Marty Lorenzo
Member, San Diego
[email protected]
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Gauri P. Punjabi
Associate, San Diego
[email protected]
Dawn Saunders
Member, San Diego
[email protected]
Terri Shieh-Newton, PhD
Member, San Diego
[email protected]
Benjamin Sigel
Associate, Boston
[email protected]
Wendy Starr
Director of Human Resources, Boston
[email protected]
Sahir Surmeli
Member, Boston
[email protected]
Renee Winchell
Marketing Manager, San Francisco
[email protected]
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