Diversity: Thompson & Knight LLP

A Commitment to Diversity

Thompson & Knight creates, fosters, and maintains a substantively diverse and inclusive environment in order to recruit, retain, and promote employees. The Firm has taken crucial steps toward becoming the diversity and inclusion model for its legal communities.

In recognition of these efforts, the Firm is honored to be the recipient of the Chevron Law Firm Diversity Recognition Award, a Top 100 Law Firm for Diversity by MultiCultural Law, a "Mother-Friendly Worksite" by the Texas Department of the State Health Services, and a "Best Place to Work" for four consecutive years by Dallas Business Journal. Thompson & Knight is the first Houston law firm to join the "Community of Respect" program of the Anti-Defamation League. This program provides tools and resources to help Houston-area organizations fight prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination and engender respect and appreciation for diversity.

The Firm strives to maintain an environment in which all employees have equitable access to opportunities for personal and professional growth. In support of its efforts, the Firm hired a Chief Diversity Officer and a Chief Development Officer, both of whom are female attorneys. The Chief Development Officer, a former partner with the Firm and a clinical psychologist, focuses on attorney development through structured programming, mentoring, and coaching. The Chief Diversity Officer, an ethnically diverse partner, designs, implements, and monitors initiatives that support the Firm's commitment to diversity and inclusion, and is actively involved in mentoring the Firm's diverse attorneys.

Thompson & Knight's ethnically diverse and female attorneys are actively involved in Firm management and leadership. These roles are evidence of the Firm's commitment to advancing diverse attorneys into positions that drive and influence the Firm's overall business and strategies. To ensure equitable distribution of work, Thompson & Knight has full-time managers in its trial and transactional practices whose responsibilities include coordinating the assignment of work projects for associates.

The Firm recently held a full-day retreat for all ethnically diverse attorneys to empower and train them in personal, career, and business development. This retreat, attended by all attorneys of color, generated extremely positive feedback and discussion. In addition, the Firm is currently planning a retreat for all female attorneys of the Firm. The schedule will include pointed discussions on women's issues and business development, as well as internal networking time.

Thompson & Knight recognizes that some attorneys require flexibility in work schedules because of family or other personal needs. The Firm supports the efforts of its attorneys to balance personal and professional demands by providing flexible work schedules.

The Firm participates in on-campus and job-fair interviewing programs, e.g., the Sunbelt Minority Recruiting Program, and hosts on-campus presentations to more than 15 law schools across the nation to increase awareness of the Firm's commitment to diversity. The Firm created an endowed scholarship for African American or Hispanic students enrolled in The University of Texas School of Law.

Thompson & Knight is actively involved in a wide variety of diverse organizations through its attorneys' leadership and participation; through its recruiting at historically black universities and colleges; through various educational presentations, speaking engagements, and sponsorships; and through financial contributions. Specific initiatives include leadership in the Houston Bar Association's Minority Opportunities in the Legal Profession Summer Internship Program; participation in the Dallas Bar Association's Minority and Business Development Initiative; panelist for the Diversity in the Workplace event organized by the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce; title sponsor for the Black Law Student's Association's Rocky Mountain Regional Conference in Houston; participation on the Texas Diversity Council's Board of Directors with active involvement in the Women's Leadership Forum; involvement in the Houston Independent School District's State of School Address; and active membership on the State Bar of Texas' Diversity Task Force and assistance on its recently published paper on diversity and inclusion in law firms and corporate legal departments.

Thompson & Knight not only focuses diversity and inclusion efforts on the legal and local communities in which it serves, but also internally on its employees. All employees of the Firm - attorneys and staff - will participate in a comprehensive micro inequities training program. This is a unique style of training that is designed to promote true diversity through awareness of the effects of body language, spoken language, and cultural mores on overall productivity in the workplace.

These, and many informal, inter-personal initiatives exemplify the Firm's effort to reduce the attrition rate of diverse attorneys, and to enhance its diverse and inclusive environment. At the end of the day, accountability is the key to ensuring results. Thompson & Knight maintains accountability through particular focus, substantive efforts, and successful implementation of its recruiting, retention, mentoring, promotion, and training initiatives.