Diversity: Miles & Stockbridge P.C.

"Diversity -- A Miles & Stockbridge Core Value."

Diversity is a core ingredient in our ability to fulfill our Firm's Mission -- "As a unified team, to deliver unparalleled service based on a foundation of trust." We seek to achieve our Mission in a culture that not only values, but actively fosters, the creativity and critical thinking that result when people with varied perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, talents and interests join together to respond to client needs. This is why Diversity, in the broadest sense of the word, is a core value at Miles & Stockbridge. Diversity is central to our culture of mutual respect and trust and central to our ability to deliver superior client service, as a team. The basic qualities we seek in all our professionals -- commitment to clients, sound judgment, creativity, entrepreneurial drive, business skill, civic responsibility, and a desire to be the best -- are deeply enriched by diverse cultural experiences. These qualities define the way we practice law and offer our services, and they are greatly strengthened by our non-hierarchical, open door approach that welcomes and supports all people.

Diversity Commitment

We define diversity broadly to encompass, without limitation, race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability and marital and parental status. We are committed to facilitating diversity in the hiring, retention and promotion of lawyers and other colleagues and in the elevation of diverse lawyers to leadership positions within our firm. To this end, we are continuing our efforts to ensure that our work environment is and remains one that is accepting, tolerant and supportive for all colleagues.

Our Diversity Committee

Our program is spearheaded by the Co-Chairs of our Diversity Committee, John B. Frisch, Firm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Heidi A. Hansan, a principal in our Transactional Finance Practice Group and an active member of our Recruitment Committee. The program is administered by a woman, Randi S. Lewis, our Director of Diversity & Professional Development. Our Committee is comprised of some of our firm's top leaders and other principals, associates, women, lawyers of color, and gay and lesbian lawyers. Our Committee has an affirmative agenda of initiatives to recruit women and minorities, to assist them in their professional development, and to place them on key client and industry teams and on internal firm committees. Committee members also work closely with Diversity Consultants, Verna Myers & Associates, who have conducted assessments and training on diversity and mentoring.

Affinity Groups

Miles & Stockbridge supports the activities of two voluntary affinity groups, The Miles Minority Network and The Women's Network, which provide social networks, business development support, and community outreach opportunities for their members and for our firm in general.

Diversity In The Community

We have a special commitment to facilitate and meaningfully support the involvement of our firm's lawyers, including our women and minorities, in the legal community and in pro bono, civic and philanthropic pursuits. As a consequence, many of our women and minority lawyers play key roles in organizations such as The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Chase Brexton Health Services, various programs and committees of the American Bar Association, the Baltimore City Bar Association, and other national and local Bar Associations. Diversity Committee Co-Chair John Frisch meets regularly with leading members of the African American business community to get their insight and ideas to further all aspects of our Diversity efforts.

Miles & Stockbridge strongly supports minority bar associations and minority student organizations. For example, in the past year, we have sponsored and attended events for law school student associations such as BLSA, LLSA, APALSA, and LGBT. Our lawyers are active in the minority community, including membership in minority bar associations and committees such as the Monumental City Bar Association, National Bar Association, Women's Bar Association, Alliance of Black Women Lawyers, Hispanic National Bar Association, Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Maryland Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Diversity Recruitment, Mentoring, And Professional Development

We desire to become more racially diverse and actively recruit minority students from traditional law schools and from traditionally black universities such as Howard University Law School. We also interview students through the Mid-Atlantic BLSA. We have spoken on interview techniques to minority student groups such as national, local, and Mid-Atlantic BLSA groups and to the National Hispanic Bar Association, Student Division.

We also continue to recruit women lawyers at all levels and we support those women in their professional development and in their promotion to principal. We also partner with the University of Maryland School of Law faculty and administrators as well as with the school's Women, Leadership and Equality Fellowship Program, run by Professor Paula Monopoli, on various events for women in business.

Our Women's Network provides workshops and mentoring to help our female lawyers in their professional development. Workshops on networking, financial planning, client service and time management, for example, are some of the recent professional development sessions directed to women.

Miles & Stockbridge recognizes that simply attracting minority and women lawyers to our firm and supporting affinity groups is not enough. As a consequence, in addition to maintaining our mentoring-rich culture, we adopted a formal mentoring program designed to provide all lawyers, including women and minorities, with regular, focused mentoring and feedback. Our formal mentoring relationships are primarily cross-gender and/or cross-race. At the same time, our culture is one where mentoring happens naturally. We also provide formal educational programming and routinely provide work experience with significant responsibility starting in the first year of employment.

Flexible Schedule Policy and Domestic Partner Health Care Benefits

We have a family-friendly flexible schedule policy, which is enjoyed by many of our lawyers and paralegals. In addition, our criteria for elevation to principal include thresholds for lawyers working on flexible schedules.

In an effort to ensure that our gay and lesbian colleagues have equal access to health care benefits, our Board of Directors adopted a formal Domestic Partner's Benefits policy. As a result of this policy, all of our colleagues, regardless of their marital status, can share in the firm's health care benefits for themselves, their domestic partners, and their families.

Pro Bono Work in Diverse Communities

Miles & Stockbridge also engages in pro bono work that benefits diverse communities. Three such prominent initiatives focus on mentoring and empowering youth, assisting victims of domestic violence, and running a legal clinic for the underserved and the LGBT community.

Our lawyers and staff actively participate in the Community Law In Action mentoring program for students attending Baltimore City high schools and we support the Baltimore Urban Debate League. We regularly go into court on a pro bono basis on behalf of victims of domestic violence referred to Miles & Stockbridge through Sinai Hospital Women's and Children's Clinic to obtain final protective orders for them. In addition, our firm's lawyers established and staff a pro bono legal clinic at Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc., a non-profit, community-based organization providing medical, psychological, and social services on a non-discriminatory basis to underserved communities in Baltimore.

Doing Business With Minority-Owned Vendors

Our firm's chairman, John B. Frisch, is passionately committed to making our firm more diverse and fostering greater success among minority owned businesses in our region. Mr. Frisch participates with white male and minority business leaders on "Bridging the Gap," a special task force that has been created in the greater Baltimore region to improve the area's business culture by developing and promoting relationships between majority and minority and women owned businesses. Consistent with this and as part of our firm's diversity and related initiatives, Miles & Stockbridge regularly does business with minority-owned vendors for products such as office supplies and services such as event catering.

Diversity Results

Since January 1, 2003, we more than tripled the number of lawyers of color at Miles & Stockbridge. In the past number of years, women and minorities have comprised 40-50% of our summer associate classes. Miles & Stockbridge has received consistently high marks as an overall place to work in The American Lawyer Surveys of Midlevel and Summer Associates of major national law firms, including the No. 1 ranking by our Summer Associates in 2005 and the No. 2 ranking by our Midlevel Associates in 2004. Our midlevel lawyers and our summer associates have given us top rankings in categories such as: dedication to diversity; training and guidance; opportunities to work with partners; confidence in the firm's leadership; collegiality; and family-friendliness. In another survey, Miles & Stockbridge ranks among the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity and for Women by The American Lawyer's MultiCultural Law Magazine, the magazine for diversity in the legal profession.

We are proud of our recent successes, but we are not satisfied. As embodied in our Mission, we strive every day to be our best, for our clients and for each other. We recognize that being the best means we can always do more to create and sustain meaningful, long-term diversity at Miles & Stockbridge. Our team accepts the challenge, and we welcome others to join us.