Strengthening Diversity Within the Profession

Baker Donelson undertakes efforts to encourage and strengthen diversity within the legal profession at large:

• Baker Donelson received the Nashville Bar Association's Minority Opportunities Program 2007 Leadership Award, marking the tenth consecutive year the Firm has won the award. Leadership Award recipients are judged on four criteria: minority lawyer recruitment and hiring, minority lawyer retention, minority summer associate programs and business referrals to minority lawyers. Firm contributions to the Minority Opportunities Program are also considered.
• Across the Firm, minority attorneys hold and have held professional leadership positions, such as first female president of the American Health Lawyers Association; Chair of the Workers' Compensation section of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS); Secretary and Treasurer of the Birmingham Bar Association; serving on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division; Editor-in-Chief of the ABA's TIPS/Automobile Law Committee Newsletter; and Vice Chair of the ABA Committee on Diversity within the Profession.
• With the Firm's encouragement and financial support, Clarence Risin, a shareholder in the Knoxville office, is an active participant in the American Bar Association's Minority Counsel Program.
• The Firm participates in two annual minority job fairs: the Southeastern Minority Job Fair in Atlanta, and the National Black Law Students Association Job Fair, most recently held in Birmingham, Alabama.
• Each year, Baker Donelson serves as a sponsor for the National Black Law Students Association's annual meeting.
• Baker Donelson contributed 20% of the endowment of the University of Tennessee College of Law Julian Blackshear Scholarship, which provides financial support for minority law students.
• Boasting two past Presidents of the Napier-Looby Bar Association, Baker Donelson provides financial support to the association and also pays the dues of all the Firm's attorneys who wish to be members of National Bar Association branches.