OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
A number of years ago, Davis & Gilbert began to actively focus its efforts on fostering a more diverse and inclusive workplace. To increase the hiring, retention and promotion of minority attorneys, the firm became one of the original signatories to the New York City Bar Association’s “Statement of Goals of New York Law Firms and Corporate Legal Departments for Increasing Minority Representation and Retention.” Thereafter, Davis & Gilbert became a signatory to the Diversity Statement of the New York County Lawyers’ Association.
The firm recognizes the need to strategically position itself to recruit and retain the best and brightest people and bring the widest range of ideas, experiences and approaches to bear on the issues facing its clients. We established a Committee on Diversity and declared that we have been and remain committed to ensuring that diversity manifests itself in our firm:
- In the respectful and collegial way we treat each other, our clients and members of the community
- In hiring without regard to age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or disability
- In facilitating career development
- In the options we create to help balance work requirements and family commitments
- In the way we make our workplace more interesting and enjoyable because different talents and perspectives stimulate our thinking
- In the way we examine everything we do
OUR GOALS
Davis & Gilbert’s Diversity Committee is itself diverse and includes male and female attorneys of different races, religions, national origin, and sexual orientation. The Committee also comprises full and part-time attorneys of all seniority levels and from various practice groups. Its mandate is to review the firm’s existing diversity practices and recommend specific, realistic strategies and policies for enhancing and strengthening the firm’s diversity efforts. The chair of the Committee serves on the firm’s executive management and his active and ongoing participation ensures a commitment by senior-level firm management to continued progress in cultivating a diverse workplace at Davis & Gilbert.
OUR FOCUS
The Diversity Committee meets on a regular basis to discuss initiatives, interface with experts and consultants, and propose and implement plans that will promote diversity goals within the firm. Much of the Committee's work focuses on:
- Recruiting Talent: Increasing opportunities to hire minority, women, LGBT and other diverse attorneys.
- Retaining Talent: Facilitating access to clients and assigning matters that will help diverse attorneys thrive in the firm. Strengthening policies that allow for family-friendly work arrangements.
- Coordinating Greater Community Outreach: Supporting and actively participating in key bar and legal associations, business organizations and groups that are focused on specific diverse constituencies or general diversity goals.
OUR WOMEN’S INITIATIVE
In 2008, Davis & Gilbert retained Lauren Stiller Rikleen of the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success and author of the book Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law to conduct three workshops for women counsel and associates. These workshops are designed to help women lawyers navigate the workplace and their career successfully by helping women position themselves as a “go to” lawyer, integrate business generation, cultivate mentoring relationships and balance work with family.
OUR INVOLVEMENT
Davis & Gilbert encourages and supports attorney involvement in professional and community-based diversity organizations. Below are just a few examples of the many ways we participate.
- One of our partners is Co-Chair of the Board of the Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), a New York statewide civil rights organization committed to achieving equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers and their families. Davis & Gilbert is a yearly sponsor of ESPA's annual Fall Dinner fundraiser event.
- Davis & Gilbert participates in the New York City Bar Association’s Minority Fellowship Program. The Fellowship Program is a highly competitive summer employment program that partners law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies with first-year law students of color from New York City-area law schools.
- In 2007, one of our clients, Waterfront Media, introduced Davis & Gilbert to the New York Women’s Foundation, which helps low-income women and girls in the five boroughs to achieve sustained economic security through expanded opportunities. Davis & Gilbert sponsored the 20th anniversary of the NYWF’s “Celebrating Woman at Breakfast.”
- Attorneys in the firm are actively involved in organizations devoted to combating domestic violence and seeking to further the legal rights of South Asian women in the United States, with the firm providing both pro bono legal services and financial sponsorship and support. The firm has a long history of supporting Sakhi, an anti-domestic violence agency that focuses on serving the South Asian community, and sponsored Sakhi’s 2007 “StreetSmarts” event, which paid tribute to the bravery of a Pakistani anti-violence activist
- Davis & Gilbert sponsored a “Read-Aloud” program, in conjunction with Learning Leaders, in a public school in Harlem. More than 30 lawyers visited the school to read books to second graders, and the firm donated books, all for the purpose of exposing minority and other students to the legal profession.
OUR SUPPORTIVE WORKPLACE
Domestic Partner Medical Insurance: Davis & Gilbert provides domestic partner medical insurance benefits for all employees and their same sex partners.
Flex-Time: Davis & Gilbert also provides family-friendly benefits and workplace policies that address such issues as FMLA leave, flex-time, part-time employment, and other ways to help balance family and work life.
Mentoring: Through the firm's mentoring efforts, diverse and other attorneys receive assistance and support in business development and exposure to valuable assignments and top-tier clients.
For additional information on the firm’s commitment to diversity, please
contact:
Howard J. Rubin – Committee Chair
212.468.4822
hrubin@dglaw.com
Jennifer Tafet Klausner - Committee Co-chair
212.468.4827
jklausner@dglaw.com
