Commitment to Diversity
Diversity Mission
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting its attorneys and staff members regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, physical ability, religion, sexual orientation or personal background. We aspire to be a firm whose members reflect the diversity of the communities where we do business. Hinshaw believes that achieving this objective has positive business, economic and social consequences for our firm and our communities. We are committed to maintaining this objective in both the short and long terms. Consistent therewith, the firm actively and aggressively seeks to hire, retain and promote minority attorneys, including African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.
Diversity Initiatives and Accomplishments
Hinshaw has a longstanding commitment to ensuring that our firm represents the communities in which we practice. With a formal Diversity Initiative led by the firm's Diversity Committee, our recruiting and hiring programs, our partner promotions and management assignments reflect this result-focused commitment to diversity:
- We include more than 50 minority lawyers in the firm, and our minority retention rate is historically strong
- In three of the past five years, the majority of attorneys promoted as capital partners were either women or minorities
- Women partners serve as partners-in-charge of Hinshaw's offices in St. Louis, Fort Lauderdale and Northwest Indiana
- A minority partner serves as partner-in-charge of Hinshaw's San Francisco office
- A minority and a woman partner serve on the firm's seven-person Management Committee, which governs the firm
- Two minorities and seven women serve on the firm's 25-person Executive Committee, which addresses firm policy and operational issues
- Five of our national specialty practice groups are chaired by women partners
- A woman partner serves as President of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois
- A minority partner serves as Co-President of the Minnesota Chapter of the South Asian Bar Association
- Hinshaw continues to support a minority scholarship program which it began in 1989 and has continued its long-standing commitment to devote 50 percent of its summer internship positions to minority attorneys.
Hinshaw takes pride in our commitment to ensuring that all of our associates are mentored and trained thereby providing clients with the highest level of quality service. Our formal mentoring program is specifically tailored to support minority associates in their advancement in the firm and in meeting their professional goals and aspirations.
Each of Hinshaw's business regions is required to set forth annually a strategic plan for diversity. These plans are submitted to the Diversity Committee for review and acceptance, and are ultimately approved and monitored by our Management Committee. Each year the region or office that has most advanced Hinshaw's diversity objectives is presented with the Chairman's Diversity Award. Accompanying this award is a substantial donation made by the firm to a charity or organization of the region's choice, whose vision includes diversity.
Hinshaw encourages our attorneys to participate in organizations and associations that enhance their professional, civic and cultural development. As a result, many of our attorneys are active members in a wide variety of community, women- and minority-based organizations. Some serve as leaders of these organizations, including as a Regional Governor for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association; Board Member for the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois; Treasurer and Executive Board Member of the Mexican American Bar Association; Board of Governors Member of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association; and Board Member of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association. Other firm members have formerly held top leadership positions in minority-based organizations, including President of the Asian American Bar Association; President of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association; and President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.
Hinshaw is a participating signatory of the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women's "Call to Action," a project to promote women's leadership in the legal profession. This dovetails with the firm¿s involvement with the Women's Bar Association of Illinois where a firm partner serves as President.
Hinshaw is also a participating signatory of the Bar Association of San Francisco's No Glass Ceiling Initiative whose main goals include having at least 25 percent of women in partnership positions and at least 25 percent of women in management positions.
Because of the firm's national presence, we are involved in many national, state and local organizations. The following is just a sampling of those organizations to which our members belong or which Hinshaw actively supports with both our time and financial contributions:
- Minority Corporate Counsel Association
- ABA Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the Profession
- National Bar Association
- Hispanic National Bar Association
- Asian American Bar Association
- Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms
- DRI Minority Corporate Counsel Section
- Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
- Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago
- Women's Bar Association of Illinois
- DePaul University Minority Scholarship Program
- Charting Your Own Course Foundation
- Jewish United Fund
- Cuban American Bar Association
- La Raza Lawyers Association
- Chicago Urban League
Finally, reflecting our diversity and desire to serve our communities, our lawyers across the country are fluent in 20 different languages.
Diversity Committee
Committee Chair:
Jeffrey R. Glass
Committee Members:
Robert J. Romero
Leslie Richards-Yellen
Frances M. O'Meara
Cheryl Wilke
David R. Creagh
Dean E. Parker
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Matter Budgeting and Financial Management
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Does the firm establish formal budgets for client engagements?
Yes
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Are bills submitted electronically?
Yes
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Quality Management
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Does the firm conduct end of matter reviews?
Yes
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Litigation General Best Practices
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Does the firm have a formalized new associate litigation training/mentoring program?
Yes
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Does the firm's litigation department have a structured approach to early case assessment? For example: Does your firm implement a standard approach to determine risks and strengths early in a case to assess trial or settlement options?
Yes
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Does the firm have an established records management team to assist clients with records retention, compliance and litigation preparedness?
Yes
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Litigation eDiscovery Best Practices
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Does the firm have an established eDiscovery Committee?
Yes
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Does your firm have any educational programs designed to address the changing federal rules of civil procedure?
Yes
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Does the firm have a standardized litigation hold program in place for its clients?
Yes
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Does your firm have a standardized protocol to guide client data collection? (i.e. Maintaining chain of custody, utilizing forensically sound procedures)
Yes
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Does the firm have a standardized protocol to guide processing clients' edata? (i.e. all data produced in PDF, meta data preserved?)
Yes
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Does the firm have a standardized approach for document reviews across practice groups (i.e. established protocol for eDiscovery review depending on the needs of the case)
Yes
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Vendor Management
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Does the firm have preferred vendor relationships?
No
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Knowledge Management
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Does the firm have a knowledge management program?
No
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Disaster Recovery
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Does the firm have a disaster recovery plan in place?
Yes
