In 2021 we hosted the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America 2021, in association with Kirkland and Ellis LLP, virtually.

These awards celebrated the achievements of firms and individuals who furthered the advancement of diversity and inclusion across the USA and Canada.

Since 2012, the Chambers team have conducted in-depth research and hosted numerous diversity seminars across the USA which include events and awards in both New York and Miami.

The 2021 awards provided the opportunity to shine the spotlight on role models and trailblazers in pro bono and corporate social responsibility as well as inclusion.

The 2020 awards achieved a number of firsts: the first D&I awards to include Canada; first virtual Chambers awards; and the first to include an awards for Veterans Program of the Year.

During the awards, we were able to celebrate the environment and sustainability award for the first time.

The awards were in association with Kirkland and Ellis.

Future Leader 
Aalok Sharma - Stinson LLP  
Abha T. Fadipe - Burris Law, PLLC 
Alexandra Daniels - Baker McKenzie 
Andrew Smith - Greenberg Traurig, LLC 
Alain Mathieu - Mintz 
Carla Jordan-Detamore - Vinson & Elkins LLP 
James Alphonse Nortey - Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 
Jervonne Newsome - Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann 
Kaydene Grinnell - Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP  
Nabil Rodriguez - Greenspoon Marder LLP 
Neha Dagley - Rivero Mestre LLP 
Nicole E. De Leon - Cairncross & Hempelmann 
Tanisha Reed - McGuireWoods LLP  
Tara Jackson - Akerman LLP 

Highly Commended: Neha Dagley - Rivero Mestre LLP 

Winner: Carla Jordan-Detamore - Vinson & Elkins LLP 

Carla is a Senior Associate at Vinson & Elkins in the complex commercial litigation practice group. She is the founder and firmwide co-leader of the Black Affinity Network, the firmwide co-lead of the Women of Color Network, and served as one of the inaugural Washington Office Leads for the firm’s Diversity Council. Her commitment to D&I work extends beyond the firm, through her service on multiple committees and taskforces with the National Bar Association, particularly through work with the Greater Washington Area Chapter of the Women Lawyers Division of the NBA. On top of this already significant commitment to D&I, Carla also maintains an active docket of pro bono cases and is involved with a number of mentoring organisations.  

Amy Warr - Alexander Dubose & Jefferson  

David Wood - Akerman LLP 
Kelly K. Burris - Burris Law, PLLC 
Mark A. Melton - Holland & Knight 

Mark Kinghorn - McGuireWoods LLP 
Richard Mancino - Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 

Rob Roberts - Ropes & Gray LLP 
Susan M. Finegan – Mintz 

Tawfiq S. Rangwala - Milbank LLP 
Thomas Linn - Miller Canfield 

Highly Commended: Kelly K. Burris - Burris Law, PLLC 

Winner: Tawfiq S. Rangwala - Milbank LLP 

Tawfiq has made pro bono work a key part of his twenty year career. From 2002-2020, he committed more than 3,800 hours to pro bono matters, averaging 192 hours per year. As a partner, Tawfiq has dedicated an average of 256 hours per year, with 532 hours contributed in 2020 alone. Milbank strongly supports his pro bono work, having allocated more than 35,000 hours to Tawfiq’s core matters over the years, valued at more than $21 million. One particularly important case involves leading a ten of dozens of lawyers over ten years for a client facing the death penalty, culminating in the Louisiana Supreme Court vacating the death sentence in late 2017. Tawfiq has continued to advocate for the client, who is now facing life in prison.  

Alexander C. Touma - White & Case LLP  
Brandon Vaughn - Robins Kaplan 
Catherine Dargan - Covington & Burling LLP 
Cheryl Bush - Bush Seyferth PLLC 
Harold Franklin - King & Spalding 
Jonathan P. Harmon - McGuireWoods LLP 
Purvi Patel - Morrison & Foerster 
Regina Sam Penti - Ropes & Gray LLP 
Sameer Advani - Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 
Sharon Ng - Stinson LLP 

Highly Commended: Sharon Ng - Stinson LLP 

Winner: Catherine Dargan - Covington & Burling LLP 

Catherine is chair of Covington & Burling’s corporate practice, and served for eight years on the firm’s Management Committee. Her impressive slate of D&I work over the last year has been grounded in the turbulence of 2020, with Catherine acting an instrumental part of firm-wide activities focussing on racial equality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder (including moderating a discussion on the struggle for racial equality with Covington lawyer and former Attorney General Eric Holder). Catherine has also worked on multiple deals related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the collaboration between a ventilator manufacturer and major car company’s idle manufacturing capability to address critical ventilator shortages in the US. Given her experience as often being the only woman, and invariably the only woman of colour at the negotiating table in her M&A practice, Catherine mentors law students and law firm associates. A particular dealmaking accomplishment from the last few years is her leadership of the Adtalem Global Education’s billion dollar takeover of a for profit university, with the deal team led entirely by Black female lawyers. 

Amy M. Stewart - Stewart Law Group 
Brian Winterfeldt - Winterfeldt IP Group, PLLC 
Darren Skinner - Arnold & Porter 
Marilyn Holifield - Holland & Knight 

Melinda ("Mindy") Gentile - Peckar & Abramson, P.C. 
Meshach Rhoades - Armstrong Teasdale 
Robert Vaughan - Kim Vaughan Lerner LLP 
Ruben Castillo - Akerman LLP 
Tracy Richelle High - Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 
Vidhya Prabhakaran - Davis Wright Tremaine LLP 

Highly Commended: Robert Vaughan - Kim Vaughan Lerner LLP 

Winner: Ruben Castillo - Akerman LLP 

Ruben Castillo is not only Chair of Akerman Bench and a partner in Akerman’s Chicago office with a thriving practice, but is also Co-Chair of the Northern District of Illinois’ Racial Justice Diversity Committee. Appointed by Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to spearhead efforts aimed at identifying racial inequality and achieve equal justice for all within the court, this post comes as the culmination of a long history as a trailblazer and diversity champion. Ruben was nominated by President Bill Clinton to serve on the federal bench, eventually becoming the first Latino Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois. He also spent over a decade as vice chair of the US Sentencing Commission, and during this tenure expanded Chicago’s Federal Reentry Court to assist former federal inmates during their return to their communities.  

Terrence M. Franklin - Sacks Glazier Franklin & Lodise 

Terrence Franklin had built up a trusts and estate litigation practice for nearly 25 years before using this knowledge to “Help Bend the Arc of History Towards Justice”. In dozens of high profile presentations, interviews and articles Terrence has retraced his journey to uncover his fourth great-grandfather’s will, and the unexpected will contest that threatened to keep his family enslaved. His activism has also led him to help develop and then host the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel’s “Planning for a Diverse and Equitable Future” series, serve on the Board of Directors of Outfest since 2014 and work with a number of universities across the United States. 

Dechert LLP 
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 

Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher’s program of activities to reduce their environmental impact has been operating for more than a decade. They offer pro bono legal advice to a variety of organisations promoting or facilitating sustainable environmental practice, but their commitment to the environmental is clear through the breadth of their programme. and achieving significant energy savings through technological improvements such as virtualized servers. 

Highly Commended: Dechert LLP 

Winner: Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 

Covington & Burling LLP
McGuireWoods LLP 

Highly Commended: Covington & Burling LLP 

Winner: McGuireWoods LLP 

Highly commended at the Chambers North America D&I Awards 2020, McGuireWoods has distinguished itself through continued commitment in this underdiscussed area of Diversity & Inclusion.  Their commitment is clear across both the political arena (through work to secure the passage of the landmark Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act) and the individual space, with dozens of their volunteers working with clients of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. Amongst many other internal and external activities undertaken by the firm, their Veteran Lawyers Network has grown in scope by expanding to include allies in the form of family and friends of military veterans.  

Baker McKenzie 
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP 
Kirkland & Ellis 

Jenner & Block LLP 
Joseph Saveri Law Firm, Inc. 
McGuireWoods LLP 
Milbank LLP 
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP 
Ropes & Gray LLP 

Highly Commended: Kirkland & Ellis 

Winner: Jenner & Block LLP 

Jenner & Block’s commitment to pro bono is clear, with their programme stretching back to the 1950s and providing more than 1.7 million hours of pro bono service over the last three decades. In 2020 alone, they provided 68,742 lawyer pro bono hours, with 100% of attorneys dedicating more than 20 pro bono hours, with an average of 148 hours per lawyer last year.  The matters undertaken range from high profile matters like a US Supreme Court case effecting the rights of Native Americans within federal reservations and securing the rights of Florida voters to use mail-in ballots in a suit against the US postmaster general and the USPS, to working on behalf of individual clients, such as an individual sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile and a Chicago-wide initiative to empower frontline workers to complete a Healthcare Power of Attorney.  

Cairncross & Hempelmann  

Covington & Burling 
DTO Law  
Griesing Law, LLC 
Holland & Knight 
Kirkland & Ellis 
Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila 
Ropes & Gray LLP 
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP 
Stewart Law Group 
Wilkinson Stekloff LLP 
Willenken LLP 

Highly Commended: Wilkinson Stekloff LLP 

Winner: DTO Law 

Diversity is a fundamental part of DTO Law, in the truest sense of the word. Founded by former Big Law attorneys in 2019, the firm was envisaged as a truly new kind of firm owned entirely by women and people of colour. The firm was a recent recipient of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms’ (NAMWOLF’s) highly regarded "Law Firm MVP” award. DTO Law attorneys are supporters and members of a broad array of organisations that promote D&I in the legal community, and all three of the firm’s partners have served as Fellows of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. 

Cathy Konwisarz - National Energy Services Reunited Corp 

Glen Rae - Bank of America 

Winner: Cathy Konwisarz - National Energy Services Reunited Corp 

Cathy is the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of National Energy Services Reunited Corp, having been appointed to this position just over a year ago. In her time as GC, she has created a diverse team of in house lawyers and worked to revamp the company’s ESG program, aligning it with United Nations principles. Her work in this area extends beyond her own organization, and she sits on the Board of Directors for two non-profit organisations: Women Offshore, which supports a diverse workforce for offshore energy facilities and Combined Arms, who work to accelerate the transition of veterans from military to civilian life.  

Azura Mason - Barclays 

Bradley M. Gayton - The Coca-Cola Company  

Chaka Patterson - Adtalem Global Education  

David R. McAtee II - AT&T  

Juliette Pryor - Albertsons Company 

Kelvina Smith - Lloyds Banking Group 

Lisa Parlato LeDonne - Honeywell  

Shonn Brown - Kimberly-Clark Corporation 

Highly Commended: Lisa Parlato LeDonne - Honeywell 

Winner: Juliette Pryor - Albertsons Company 

Juliette joined Albertons Companies in 2020 (midway through the pandemic) but her impact has already been felt! Her efforts are ongoing, but include recommitting the organisation to new internal D&I goals, creating an RFP for all vendors which includes diversity metrics and being part of an effort to arrange the $5 million donation Albertsons made towards social justice organisations in 2020. Juliette sits on the advisory council for the Black General Counsel 2025 Initiative, and this award is one of the many she has received in this area, including recognition  by Black Enterprise as one of the most powerful executives in corporate America.

 Chasity Wilson Henry - CECO Environmental Corporation 

Danielle Coleman - VMware 

James Chosy - Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, U.S. Bank 

Joel Unruch - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Accenture 

Kate Karas - General Counsel, Chime  

Luciana Fato - Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Global Head of Communications and Government Affairs, American International Group, Inc. 

Sarita Venkat - Head of IP Transactions, Apple 

Sharon Barner - Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Cummins  

Sumeet Haresh Chugani - Deputy General Counsel / Senior Vice President, Apple Bank for Savings  

Tracy Hannan - Associate General Counsel, Litigation, Exelon 

Winner: Kate Karas - General Counsel, Chime  

Kate is General Counsel at Chime Financial Inc, and serves on their Executive Committee. Her team self identifies as a ‘majority minority’ team, with over 90% of her team and 100% of the team’s leadership identifying themselves as diverse. Kate has opened Chime’s RFP process to smaller firms and law firms that are minority or female owned, and any firm engaged is required to demonstrate commitment to diversity. She not only pushes firms for female and minority partners to be given origination credit and for diverse junior attorneys to be given exposure to her and senior leadership within the legal team, but impressively also follows up personally with firm management to ensure they meet her high expectations and identify necessary areas of improvement.   

Adobe 
Credit Suisse 

Highly Commended: Credit Suisse 

Winner: Adobe 

When it comes to Adobe’s CSR programme, the numbers speak for themselves. In 2019 70% of their employees engage with CSR activities across over 60,000 nonprofit organisations, and the organisation invested approximately $50 million in communities. The organisation has committed to not just offset their carbon footprint but fundamentally change it by creating a goal of 100% reliance on renewable energy sources. Amongst their many CSR and D&I achievements Adobe has been recognised by FTSE4Good as one of their Civic 50, marking Adobe as one of the most community-minded organisations in America. 

Bank of America 
BASF Corporation  
Eaton Corporation Legal Department 
General Motors 
McDonald's Corporation 
Netflix
PVH Corp  
QBE 
Toyota Motor North America, Inc. 
WeWork 

Highly Commended: McDonald's Corporation 

Winner: Toyota Motor North America, Inc. 

Toyota not only expects but requires it’s outside legal counsel to demonstrate actionable steps towards advancing D&I, asking for detailed reports on how firms staff every matter (including the diversity makeup of the team and it’s leadership, as well as how business credits are awarded). And they don’t just expect excellence in D&I from their firms, but also work to ensure their own commitment to diversity is evidenced throughout the organisation. Toyota have received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the past 13 years, and have recently more than doubled the number of women in senior manager field sales roles in just two years. Toyota Financial Services also issued a TFS issued a $750 million diversity and inclusion bond in 2020, only open to underwriting by minority and female-owned investment banking firms. They also have more than 100 Business Partnering Groups across the organisation, which focus on specific areas of D&I to lead on diversity outreach and serve their local communities. 

Aird & Berlis LLP 
Dentons Canada LLP  
McCarthy Tétrault LLP 
Miller Thomson LLP 
Monkhouse Law Employment Lawyers 

Highly Commended: Miller Thomson LLP 

Winner: Dentons Canada LLP  

Dentons’ D&I work in 2020 focussed on addressing anti-Black racism. A critical step saw the launch of the Black Professionals Network, led by the firm’s Chief Financial Officer (a black woman). Dentons has created a three pillar system to address anti-Black racism, creating a strategic framework to advance dozens of programs and initiatives as well as measure their progress. Crucially, the program not only ensures diverse individuals within the firm are listened to but that the increased knowledge and understanding is backed up by action. This includes participation in a ten year commitment (alongside 12 other law firms) to provide CA$1.5 million in funding for the Black Future Lawyers program.  

Abigail Tulloch, Infrastructure Ontario 
Gassim Bangoura, Birks Group Inc. 
Jennifer Suess, RioCan REIT 
Terrie-Lynne Devonish, Staples Canada 
Dr. Vishal Sodha, Arysta LifeScience North America LLC, UPL AgroSolutions Canada Inc 

Winner: Abigail Tulloch, Infrastructure Ontario 

Abigail is Senior Legal Counsel at Infrastructure Ontario. She restructured the organisation’s approach to D&I to better address anti-racism and specifically anti-Black racism, and onboarded the strategy to IO’s senior leadership and Board of Directors. This included the creation of an Anti-Racism Working Committee of over 70 employees, championing increased data and metric collection with the organisation’s first demographic survey (which received a participation rate of 83%) and secure approval to hire a Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. The impact of her work is felt not only internally, but externally through the organisation’s support of corporations and institutions across Ontario and wider Canada.  

Birks Group Inc.  
Newmont 

Winner: Birks Group Inc. 

In 2020 Birks Group created a Taskforce to drive change and development in anti-racism, diversity and inclusion at all levels of the organisation. An initiative founded after the murder of George Floyd, their goal is to identify opportunities that will ignite meaningful change. The initiative includes Gassim Bangoura, the Director of Legal Affairs and Assistant Company Secretary, demonstrating senior level commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive workforce.