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Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP is committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce through the recruitment of attorneys of various backgrounds and an emphasis on their retention and promotion. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the clients and communities we serve, as well as the judges, jurors and other participants in the legal system. By increasing the variety of perspectives and range of experience at Swanson, Martin & Bell, we become a stronger and more well-balanced law firm.
Swanson, Martin & Bell encourages qualified individuals of different social, economic and cultural backgrounds to join our firm. The firm actively participates in minority job fairs throughout the year, most notably the Cook County Minority Job Fair. Additionally, Swanson, Martin & Bell interviews law students from Chicago area law schools and recruits on campus at a variety of law schools with an eye toward diversity.
As a result of the firm’s most recent recruitment efforts at the Cook County Minority Job fair and at on campus interviews, Swanson, Martin & Bell proudly welcomed two minority attorneys to its 2007 first year class of six, and will welcome three minority attorneys to its 2008 first year class of six. These lawyers and law students will join a firm that already includes women and minority lawyers of various backgrounds and ethnicities. Once these candidates and new lawyers join us, we extend to them mentoring and networking opportunities, both within the firm and in the professional community as a whole.
Recruitment of qualified, talented and diverse law students is just one aspect of Swanson, Martin & Bell’s collegial atmosphere and culture of mutual respect. The firm is also active in law school organizations and the community itself. By partnering with law school minority organizations, Swanson, Martin & Bell has created mentoring opportunities and has allowed students to shadow the firm’s lawyers at court, in depositions and at trials.
Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP is a proud supporter of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, whose membership of in-house counsel and network of supporters promote diversity in the legal field. In 2008, the firm will host the MCCA’s Midwest Region “Meritage” event, which is a networking and wine tasting reception. Several firm lawyers are also members of the Defense Research Institute’s Diversity Committee.
Within the community, the firm and various partners and associates are involved in LINK Unlimited, a not-for-profit organization that provides educational services and mentoring to economically disadvantaged African-American youth from the Chicago area. Currently and historically, the firm has sponsored, mentored and employed students throughout the year as clerks, computer assistants and paralegal assistants. In addition to providing employment opportunities, Swanson, Martin & Bell also becomes personally involved with these students and monitors their academic progress throughout high school and college.
At the law firm itself, Swanson, Martin & Bell’s female and minority lawyers participate in all levels of case assignments—from inception through trial—demonstrating Swanson, Martin & Bell’s commitment to developing trial lawyers. Swanson, Martin & Bell strives to ensure that female and minority attorneys fill significant client service roles and have meaningful participation with clients. In addition, female partners are actively involved in firm management and the Executive Committee, while minority partners participate in various firm Committees, including the Recruiting, Summer Associate and Diversity Committees.
One of the firm’s three female equity partners, and current Executive Committee member, is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and served as President of the Society of Trial Lawyers in 2005-2006. Another female equity partner is a nationally recognized toxic tort trial attorney. Firm attorneys are members of the Cook County Bar Association, the oldest African-American bar association in the United States, the Black Women Lawyers Association, the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Women’s Law Association of Illinois, the Association of Women Attorneys of Lake County, the Croatian-American Bar Association, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., the Hellenic Bar Association, the Justinian Society of Italian-American Lawyers, the Scottish Law Society and one firm associate is on the board of directors for the Indian-American Bar Association of Chicago.
Swanson, Martin & Bell’s Diversity Committee oversees the firm’s continued commitment to diversity while consistently delivering the highest quality of legal services. |
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