Monday, May 3, 2010
Page 3
Sheppard Mullin Attorney Receives Firm’s First Diversity Award
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP on Friday announced that it has selected partner Dianne Baquet Smith as the first recipient of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Award.
The award was created to recognize an individual or team of attorneys in the firm for their commitment to diversity and inclusion programs and initiatives in the legal profession, a spokesperson for the firm said.
Chairman Guy Halgren noted that Smith has headed the firm’s Diversity Committee “for decades” and said “we are thrilled to recognize her dedication to the firm’s efforts and initiatives in this area.”
Smith, a partner in the firm’s Labor and Employment group based out of its downtown Los Angeles office, remarked that she was “honored by the firm’s recognition and support.”
As part of the award, Halgren said that the firm was contributing to two “pipeline programs”—USC’s Street Law Program and Loyola Law School’s Young Lawyers Program—on Smith’s behalf. These programs are conducted by law students at each school and designed to expose primary, secondary or college students to the legal profession.
Smith added she was “pleased that Sheppard Mullin’s donation will support the vital work performed by the Street Law and Young Lawyer’s programs, as our firm teams with them to address the current pipeline crisis.”
Eleven of the Sheppard Mullin attorneys participate in the two programs, a spokesperson said.
Outside of the firm, Smith serves as president of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles’ Foundation and as a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Diversity Committee. She was also a founding member of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals.
She graduated from Stanford University and the UC Berkeley School of Law before being admitted to practice in 1980.
Copyright 2010, Metropolitan News Company