The National Bar Association (NBA) represents a network of more than 20,000 African-American lawyers, judges, educators, and legal scholars.

• In 2004, the association awarded Nixon Peabody as well as one of our partners the Presidential Award for demonstrating a sustained commitment to diversity.
• In 2004, the NBA appointed a Nixon Peabody partner to be chairman of its Corporate Diversity Initiative Task Force, which is developing initiatives to increase diversity in law firms nationwide.

Our partners also serve on two American Bar Association commissions concerned with diversity:

• The Commission on Women in the Legal Profession
• The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession

• The Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association
• The Women’s Bar Association of New York State
• The Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts
• The Greater Rochester Association of Women Attorneys
• The Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Bar Association
• The Rochester Black Bar Association
• The Washington Bar Association

Our attorneys also lead four New York State Bar Association committees.

• The Committee on Diversity and Leadership Development
• The Committee on Minorities in the Profession
• Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity in the Courts
• Special Committee on Balanced Lives and the Law

• The firm is a founding member of the Greater Rochester Diversity Council, an alliance of companies that has become a national model for understanding, promoting, and managing diversity within business communities.
• A partner in our Real Estate Group has developed an annual diversity networking event held at the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention to provide business development opportunities to minorities working in commercial real estate.
• In collaboration with a number of other attorneys, a partner in our Washington office helped launch an innovative Web-based business referral network for black lawyers around the globe. Its e-mail updates reach more than 7,000 lawyers in thirty-one countries.

In 2005, the New York State Bar Association awarded Nixon Peabody its President’s Award for outstanding pro bono service.

The firm also lends financial support to dozens of community-based organizations, including the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls, the Susan B. Anthony House, the Urban League of Rhode Island, New Hampshire Women and Children in Crisis, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Nixon Peabody also advocates for the disabled. One of our attorneys serves on a Deaf Awareness Task Force that helps New York lawyers fulfill their obligations to deaf citizens under the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Our lawyers also serve on numerous boards, including those of:

• Legal Aid
• Greater Boston Legal Services
• Migrant Farm Workers Project
• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
• Alternatives for Battered Women
• Volunteer Legal Services Project

Middle and high school programs

In Boston, inner-city school students visit Nixon Peabody’s offices weekly during a ten-week program that teaches children about law and trial advocacy. In Rochester, we’ve been involved for ten years in a program that provides work opportunities to promising high school students from different racial and ethic backgrounds who have an interest in legal careers.

Internships

Nixon Peabody provides summer jobs to first-year minority law students as part of a new clerkship program. We also support an internship program designed to increase the number of lawyers of color. In partnership with John Hancock Financial Services in Boston, Nixon Peabody lends minority summer associates to Hancock for a two-week period, which gives the associates an invaluable chance to work within a single summer both at a large law firm and as part of an in-house counsel team.

Scholarship

The William McKnight Scholarship Fund provides an annual scholarship to an African-American high school student. We sponsor a moot court competition in Bill’s memory as well, held each year at Cornell Law School in conjunction with the Black Law Students Association. The firm also annually funds an American Bar Association legal opportunity scholarship for a minority law student.

One way we enhance cultural understanding is through lawyer exchanges. We seek and hire attorneys with foreign legal training and language ability, and we place our attorneys in foreign law firms and in the offices of overseas clients.

We also welcome lawyers from foreign law firms and the offices of our foreign clients to our own offices. The duration of the temporary assignments ranges from a few months to as long as a year.

Our foreign intern program is another way we are increasing cultural knowledge and understanding. Interns from Korea, Japan, and Brazil now work in our offices and we plan to expand the program to include broader international participation.

In another collaborative, international effort, one of our partners has joined attorneys from eight different countries to establish a Web-based minority business referral network. The firm also contributes to a fund that provides scholarships to black law students around the globe who are interested in pursuing careers in international law.

Nixon Peabody travels far to recruit top talent. We attend multiple job fairs across the country, including those sponsored by the Black Law Students Association, the Lavender Law Career Conference, and the Hispanic National Bar. We also conduct on-campus interviews at Howard University. Our participation at Minority Corporate Council Association conferences also connects us with promising legal talent, as do our outreach efforts through Diversity, Inc. and Corporate Counsel Women of Color. The firm also relies on the experience of professional diversity recruiters.

Those who join Nixon Peabody receive excellent training, rich professional opportunities, and support. Our progressive mentoring program provides first-year associates with a peer mentor. We encourage all associates to develop multiple mentoring relationships during the early years of their practice.

Our benefits package is generous. It extends health care coverage to domestic partners and provides four full weeks of paid parental leave for fathers as well as mothers. Nixon Peabody also offers a diversity training program, which encourages the open exchange of different viewpoints.