Diversity

Diversity

Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP is committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce by recruiting attorneys and staff of various backgrounds with an emphasis on their retention and advancement. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the clients and communities we serve, as well as the diversity of the judges, jurors and other participants in the legal system.

Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP’s Diversity Committee oversees our continued commitment to diversity while consistently delivering the highest quality of legal services. Critical to the success of diversity initiatives is the effort of all attorneys and staff to appreciate that diversity is a way of doing business, not just a number to display. More than gender and race, diversity is the culmination of different social, economic and cultural backgrounds that interplay to create a strong and wide business network.

As a result of recruitment efforts at the Cook County Minority Job Fair and in-office interviews, several attorneys of color have joined the firm in recent years. These lawyers and law students join a firm that includes attorneys from various ethnicities and backgrounds. Once these new lawyers join us, we offer mentoring and networking opportunities within the firm and in the professional community. Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP also partners with law school organizations to create mentoring opportunities that enable students to shadow the firm’s lawyers in court, depositions and trials.

Recruitment of talented and diverse law students is just one aspect of Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP’s collegial atmosphere and culture of mutual respect. The Diversity Committee has proudly supported numerous diversity-related legal organizations over the years, including Minority Corporate Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Cabrini Green Legal Assistance, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth, CARPLS, and Defense Research Institute. In addition, firm attorneys are members of the Cook County Bar Association, Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and other organizations. 

Within the community, the firm and various attorneys 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. Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP has also become personally involved with these students and monitors their academic progress throughout high school and college.

Within the firm, Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP’s female lawyers and lawyers of color participate in all levels of case assignments—from inception through trial—demonstrating Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP’s commitment to developing trial lawyers. The firm strives to ensure that all attorneys fill significant client service roles and have meaningful participation with clients.  Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP has regularly been recognized for its diversity efforts by firm clients, one of which named the firm to the highest tier of its annual Diversity Honor Roll for five consecutive years. 

Swanson, Martin & Bell, LLP has proudly welcomed multiple female attorneys and attorneys of color to the firm’s partnership. These new partners, as well as existing partners, also participate in the firm’s Executive, Recruiting, Associates, Technology, and Diversity Committees.

We are continually seeking capable and qualified attorneys and staff for our firm. For more information, please visit the Careers website on the firm’s website, www.smbtrials.com.

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