Burns White's Diversity Initiative

To successfully navigate a global workplace, Burns White is committed to achieving diversity at our firm. We recognize the importance of recruiting qualified candidates of various backgrounds and principles, and we make it one of our missions to maintain a diverse and dynamic workforce. We are proud to say that Burns White is a stronger firm for supporting these efforts.

Every attorney at Burns White is accountable for the firm’s diversity initiative, and each plays a role in our mission, which is to stand firmly beside the notion that creating and retaining a diverse workforce is a part of our culture of providing clients with service excellence. Our firm encompasses the varied experiences that each individual brings to the firm; since we continually are learning from each other and from our clients, we are well-equipped to provide the best representation to our clients in a wide range of practice areas.

The Diversity Committee - Our Unique Approach
Burns White maintains an active Diversity Committee comprised of partners, associates, administrators and staff. One of the roles of the Diversity Committee is to promote the benefits and values of a diverse organization with optimism deeply rooted in the call for change. The Diversity Committee addresses challenges, shares success stories, and leads strategic efforts toward diversifying our workforce. These efforts include:

Commitment to Community Involvement:

• Attendance at minority-focused conferences such as this year’s Defense Research Institute’s Diversity for Success Seminar in Chicago. Our attendees came away from the session with a heightened knowledge of some of the real diversity issues that face the legal profession daily and how we can proactively address these unfolding changes. Our firm is committed to attending this conference annually, in addition to attending other diversity-focused events, as they offer educational experiences that are important to our practice and to promoting our attorneys’ development.
• Annual hosting of a minority law student reception which often features guest speakers, usually prominent minority members of the local judiciary. At the receptions, law students interact with guest speakers, Burns White attorneys, paralegals and administration, who answer questions and share their experiences and challenges as minority attorneys, as well as offer insights into the legal profession. In the past, distinguished members of the bench, bar and academia have attended these functions.
• Participation in the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s “Footprints” program in which Burns White attorneys are paired with law students to help them develop their legal reading and writing skills, as well as to prepare the law students to enter the profession with confidence in their abilities.
• Coordination of annual informal receptions with local universities as a way for students to meet our lawyers, discuss our firm and the practice of law.

Promotion Within the Firm:

• Promotion of networking by minority attorneys to build relationships both inside and outside the Firm and assist our minority attorneys to develop key skills essential to the success of their professional development.
• Recognizing retention of diverse attorneys as an issue within a law firm, Burns White has an extensive and proactive Mentoring Program in which we pair younger attorneys with more senior attorneys in order to ensure that our minority attorneys will have the tools necessary to succeed at the firm. Through the Mentoring Program, diverse attorneys are free to speak with their mentors in confidence regarding personal and professional matters, which helps to create a friendly, inclusive, supportive and welcoming atmosphere within our firm.
• Burns White encourages diverse members of the firm to develop into leaders and role models. Not only do we seek to recruit talented, skilled minority law students to join our firm, but our goal is to develop the next generation of mentors. We want all of our attorneys to reach their full potential.

Where do we go from here? Striving to Improve
At Burns White, we celebrate our evolving progress, but the success of our firm does not stop here. We recognize our clients’ call to action, and we are prepared to move forward with dedicated interest in achieving our mission which will allow our firm to more precisely mirror the community in which we live and practice, to the benefit of our clients and our attorneys.