This innovative initiative offers opportunities to minority undergraduate students who plan to pursue a career in law.

Diversity

Sidley is committed to achieving greater racial and ethnic diversity, not only for our firm but within the legal profession as a whole. Toward this end, we focus a significant portion of our outreach efforts on the recruitment, hiring and retention of diverse lawyers. Beginning with the firm's creation of a Task Force on Minority Recruitment and Retention more than a decade ago, Sidley has been one of the most prominent and progressive proponents of law firm diversity. Many of our lawyers come from diverse backgrounds, races and beliefs. Our mission is to attract and retain lawyers of varied backgrounds who meet our high standards of excellence and reflect the global marketplace that we serve.

Recent diversity achievements include:

Sidley has been named as a 2009 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firm for Women. Sidley is among the 50 winning law firms praised for their continued attention to work/life and women’s issues and for their use of flex-time, reduced-hour and other family-friendly policies to ensure the future success of the profession. Sidley is one of only 15 law firms that have received this honor every year since the list’s inception, having been named to the list in 2007 and 2008.
Sidley has been recognized by Yale Law Women, for the third year in a row, as one of their “Top Ten Family Friendly Firms,” their list of law firms that are leaders in developing and practicing family friendly policies. Sidley is one of four law firms to appear on the 2009, 2010 and 2011 lists. Sidley’s inclusion on the list is based on responses to a survey, which included questions on the percentage of female attorneys in various categories, access to and use of parental leave, emergency and on-site child care, part-time and flex-time work policies, usage of part-time and flex-time policies, billable hours and compensation practices and alternative career programs.
Sidley received a ‘perfect’ 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) report. The CEI evaluates companies based on their policies and programs which provide parity and support for their LGBT employees. The firm was also named to Human Rights Campaign’s annual list of “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality,” a distinction that is awarded to businesses that scored 100% on the CEI report. Ratings are based on factors like non-discrimination policies, diversity training and benefits for domestic partners and transgender employees. Sidley has received ‘perfect’ 100 scores on each report since 2008.
In recognition of our firmwide diversity initiative, Sidley received the 2005 Catalyst Award, which is given annually by Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and business.
Sidley received a “Diversity Award” from Baxter Healthcare in 2004, based on the value of the work our women lawyers handle for the company.
Sidley received an Honorable Mention for the 2004 Western Region Thomas L. Sager Award and was the winner of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Thomas L. Sager Award in 2003 and 1999, which recognizes law firms that have demonstrated a sustained commitment to improve the hiring, retention and promotion of minority lawyers.
Sidley was one of only six law firms profiled by Lawrence Graham in The Best Companies for Minorities: Employers Across America Who Recruit, Train, and Promote Minorities.

The firm has also created several minority scholarship funds, including the Wiley A. Branton Scholarship which is awarded annually to the highest-ranking student in the first-year class at Howard University Law School. The late Mr. Branton, a noted civil rights activist, was a partner in our firm from 1983 until his death in 1988.

Whether through firmwide mentoring programs or encouraging our diverse lawyers to be active in a variety of bar associations, our lawyer retention efforts have been implemented with the same enthusiasm and zeal that characterize our recruitment. Sidley has formed productive coalitions with minority bar associations and community organizations. In addition to sponsoring events that allow our diverse lawyers increased exposure and dialogue with the firm's leadership, Sidley has created mentoring initiatives to assist our diverse associates with the development of legal skills and client relationships.

Through our ongoing dedication to recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse lawyers who meet our high standards, Sidley aims to continue as a leader in providing equal opportunity and access to people of all backgrounds, races and beliefs. Sidley was one of six law firms profiled by Lawrence Graham in The Best Companies for Minorities: Employers Across America Who Recruit, Train, and Promote Minorities.

Women and Leadership

Sidley has been successful in recruiting, retaining and promoting women lawyers. The firm has more than 80 women partners who practice in litigation, real estate, estate planning, corporate and securities, banking and finance, tax and employee benefits, product liability, environmental, intellectual property, commodities and many other areas of the law. Firmwide, there are nearly 500 women lawyers.

The firm is one of two recipients of the 2005 Catalyst Award, which is given annually by Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and business.

Part of our success in recruiting and retaining women derives from the firm's flexible policy regarding part-time work. A number of our colleagues have practiced law on a part-time basis for an extended period of time. The firm has promoted several women to partnership while they practiced law part-time.

We have also put an extensive mentoring network into place, building and expanding relationships among women partners and associates within the same fields, as well as across different areas of practice. In addition, the firm has instituted a number of programs and policies designed to create practice development opportunities for our women lawyers, including a series of seminars known as the "Women and Leadership" series. The Committee on the Retention and Promotion of Women, spearheaded by Kathleen L. Roach and Laurin Blumenthal Kleiman, seeks to ensure that the firm's policies on these important issues are reflective of the firm's goals of promoting its female lawyers.