Fish & Richardson P.C. - Our Commitment to Diversity

Our Commitment to Diversity

Click here to see a .pdf of the Diversity Initiative description.

Diversity Initiative

"At Fish & Richardson, we are gratified about the recognition the firm has received as one of the country's top firms for diversity. We're pursuing new ideas and procedures that will help us broaden the inclusive environment we've fostered for all our attorneys and staff. While we've come a good way down this important road, we still have further to go" -- Peter J. Devlin, President, Fish & Richardson

The philosophy of diversity has a strong foundation at Fish & Richardson and is an integral part of our practice. We are committed to the recruitment and advancement of the most talented and qualified people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Diversity enhances the quality of our legal services while helping to shape a firm culture that is innovative, dignified, respectful, and open.

Fish & Richardson also recognizes that diverse backgrounds and different perspectives can generate well-grounded analysis, exchange, and action. We know it benefits our work environment, by making it more welcoming, creative, and collegial. This approach also aids in building trust and enduring relationships with our clients. Having a team that reflects the diversity of the public arena strengthens the service Fish & Richardson provides to its clients.

Recent diversity achievements

As proud as we are of the diverse team we have been able to build here at the firm, we understand that the job of promoting diversity is never complete. We can always do better. For that reason, Fish & Richardson is involved in a broad range of diversity efforts nationwide to further improve the diversity of our staff.

MultiCultural Law named Fish in its 2007 Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity list.
Minority Law Journal's 2007 Diversity Scorecard listed Fish & Richardson in the top half of more than 200 law firms.
The 2005 Diversity Scorecard of the National Law Journal (NLJ) ranked Fish in the top 25 percent of firms for diversity.
According to the NLJ survey, 12 percent of our firm's principals are minorities and 10 percent of our attorneys firm-wide are minorities, while one-third are women.
In April 2005, 2006, and 2007, Fish was named as one of the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity by MultiCultural Law Magazine.

Our attorneys

A snapshot of Fish & Richardson attorneys reveals that:

the total number of minority attorneys has increased from 6 percent in 2001 to 13 percent in 2006.
during this same time period, the number of women attorneys at the firm has increased from 18 percent to 24 percent.
in the past five years, we have increased the total number of attorneys by 32 percent.

Building and strengthening diversity

Fish & Richardson works hard to attract a diverse population to our firm and strives to increase our retention rate so that we can maintain and strengthen our diversity. Fish & Richardson's firm-wide diversity programs aim to further develop creative, welcoming environments in our offices, to build new bridges to professional and community groups, and to strengthen existing connections.

"Diversity enriches our organization and law practice by providing a variety of different backgrounds and perspectives that lead to new and innovative ideas, in turn enhancing the quality of the legal services we provide to our clients," said Nancy L. Stagg, National Chair of Fish & Richardson's Diversity Initiative. Nancy is a principal in the San Diego office who works closely with firm management and its recruiting, human resources, and client services groups to set and execute the strategic direction of the firm's long-term, corporate-wide diversity initiatives. She oversees an array of activities in all Fish & Richardson offices.

Attracting a diverse staff

Fish & Richardson was the first law firm sponsor of the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation (AIPLEF), which promotes diversity in the IP field through scholarships, mentoring, and job opportunities for minority law students. We're also the first firm to be recognized as a "Platinum" scholarship sponsor, with pledges of $20,000 annually over the next three years.

1L Diversity Fellowship Program

One key component of Fish & Richardson's ongoing initiative to recruit, retain, and advance attorneys is the 1L Diversity Fellowship Program. Launched in 2005, the program provides fellowships to five diverse first-year law students throughout the country annually. Each selected student receives a $5,000 academic scholarship, mentoring by members of the firm, and a paid summer associate position in the Fish & Richardson office of the student's choice.

Mentoring
Each recipient is assigned an attorney mentor. The mentor serves as a liaison between the student and the firm and facilitates the student's professional growth and learning. The mentoring relationship begins as soon as the recipients have been named and continues at least through the calendar year. Students meet with their mentors four times per year, in person when possible. Should a student receive and accept an offer to return for a second summer, the mentoring relationship would continue for another calendar year.

Summer Clerkship
A grant of $5,000 is awarded on September 1 of the recipient's second year of law school. The grant can be used for expenses at the student's discretion.

Additional recruiting efforts

Fish & Richardson is a member of the Boston Lawyers Group, which focuses on increasing diversity in the Boston legal community and participates in its mentoring, mock interview, and summer internship programs and its "Charting Your Legal Future" forums.
Fish & Richardson participates in numerous minority job fairs throughout the country, from Massachusetts and Delaware to Texas and California, and many of our attorneys actively serve as mentors for minority law students.
The firm has hosted receptions and presentations on careers in intellectual property for minority law students and is expanding this program to multiple venues in the coming year. In cooperation with Resources to Insure Successful Engineers (RISE), minority engineering students at the University of Delaware spend time at Fish & Richardson learning about the intersection of scientific discovery and intellectual property.
Fish & Richardson sponsored the annual Sadie T.M. Alexander Commemorative Conference and Job Fair, hosted by the Black Law Students Association of the University of Pennsylvania

Retaining a diverse staff

Fish & Richardson has implemented mandatory firm-wide diversity awareness training for all legal and non-legal staff.
In April 2005, the firm hosted its first Leadership Through Enrichment, Action, and Diversity (L.E.A.D.) Retreat for our California-based women attorneys and their clients, featuring career development and networking opportunities. We have continued this program throughout the firm and have held the L.E.A.D. Retreat in five different Fish cities to date.
Fish & Richardson enhanced our family-friendly benefits as part of our increased focus on retaining and developing our women attorneys and others with family-care responsibilities. In early 2005, we implemented backup child-care benefits for all employees and revamped our maternity and parental leave policies to be among the best available in the legal marketplace.
Fish & Richardson was one of the first law firms nationwide to offer benefits to domestic partners.

Encouraging diversity in the legal community

The firm was a sponsor of the 2006 Vault Legal Diversity Job Fair, which offered panel discussions and interactive sessions to attorneys, recruiters, law students, and members of minority law associations. The two-day job fair focused on interviewing, resumes, career options, women law leaders, scholarships, and student loan financing.
As a major sponsor of the 2005 "Creating Pathways to Diversity" conference, hosted by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Fish & Richardson sponsored four professional development programs.
In fall 2005, Fish & Richardson attorneys participated in the law career panels at the fifth annual Leadership Institute of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, which provides funds and programmatic support to historically black colleges and universities.
Fish & Richardson is a member of the California Minority Counsel Program, whose mission is to maximize opportunities for attorneys of color.
Fish & Richardson is a longtime sponsor of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal in support of the gay and lesbian legal community.

U.S. Space Camp® Scholarship

Every summer since 2000, Fish & Richardson has sent middle school students from underserved communities in cities where we have offices to U.S. Space Camp® in Huntsville, Alabama, hoping to spark an early interest in science and technology and an awareness of science- and technology-based legal careers. The scholarship program comes together at the local level. Each Fish & Richardson office partners with a school in its city, paying special attention to choose schools that serve economically disadvantaged communities. The program aims to give scholarships to students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to attend a program such as Space Camp®. Indeed, most scholarship winners have never been on a plane or away from home before.

The week-long Space Academy program is designed for students ages 12 to 14 and simulates the qualification training that real astronauts go through before a space shuttle launch. Activities include designing and building rocket models, training in a shuttle simulator and space walk simulator, and learning about mission control and space exploration.

Scholarship winners are selected based on their academic achievement, especially in math and science; their interest in space; a questionnaire and essay; teacher recommendation; and a personal interview.

Equal Employment and Affirmative Action Policy
Fish & Richardson is committed to encouraging gender and ethnic diversity among the firm and the legal profession. The firm is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of the firm to recruit, hire, provide training, and promotion for all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or marital status.