Lane Powell has more than 135 years of commitment to our communities. This commitment is reflected in Lane Powell's hiring and promotion of women and individuals from diverse backgrounds. The Firm has established an attorney Diversity Committee. The Committee is tasked with designing and implementing programs and strategies that promote an inclusive work environment and encourage the development and success of all employees.
MultiCultural Law Magazine Recognizes Lane Powell for Diversity
Lane Powell ranked as one of the country’s top 100 firms for diversity in a recent poll by MultiCultural Law magazine. The annual issue featuring the top ranking firms will be received by many Fortune 500 general counsels, all ABA-approved law schools, as well as a host of national minority and women’s legal organizations. The magazine highlights successful minority and women lawyers. Readers get straightforward interviews with some of the nation’s leading minorities in the legal community. Look for this issue of MultiCultural Law magazine in April 2005.
We are proud of our Firm’s commitment to diversity and our communities. This commitment is reflected in Lane Powell’s hiring and promotion of women and individuals from diverse backgrounds.
The Diversity Committee's mission statement is as follows:
- Promote, focus and improve the Firm's efforts to recruit, retain and advance attorneys from diverse backgrounds;
- Promote, both inside and outside the Firm, our commitment to diversity;
- Provide training to Lane Powell attorneys and staff on issues related to our increasingly diverse community, both inside and outside the Firm;
- Promote efforts to reach out to the larger legal community to increase diversity in the legal profession;
- Coordinate firm and individual attorney membership in local and national organizations committed to diversity in the legal profession;
- Ensure that Lane Powell is represented at local and national events and conferences that focus on and promote diversity in the legal profession; and
- Serve as a resource for the attorneys within the Firm with regard to developing and implementing strategies and tactics to promote, focus and improve our efforts to recruit, retain and advance attorneys from diverse backgrounds, particularly with regard to mentoring and training attorneys from diverse backgrounds.
Diversity Program
To illustrate Lane Powell’s continuing commitment to diversity, our attorneys have volunteered to participate in a cutting-edge program on racism, race relations, and racial problems in the legal profession. The six-week program, conducted by the Understanding Racism Foundation, included large law firms and was geared toward creating an understanding of the problems faced by minorities in our society. The program’s goal is to awaken participants to the awareness that racial problems still exist in our society, both overtly and subtly. And many individuals are unaware and are influenced by prior generations’ prejudice. It is hoped that this increased awareness will result in a more comfortable work environment for minorities and lead to greater attraction and retention of minorities. This program is ongoing, and Lane Powell is proud to have been the first firm to host it. Our attorneys have also participated in the Pre-law Conference for High School Students of Color sponsored by the American Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers’ Division.
To incorporate diversity at all levels of staffing, we actively recruit candidates from diverse backgrounds; this supports our commitment to diversity while also creating a team of qualified professionals, a team which we are extremely proud to call Lane Powell.
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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?
Yes
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Knowledge Management
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Does the firm have a knowledge management program?
Yes
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Disaster Recovery
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Does the firm have a disaster recovery plan in place?
Yes
