Columbus Managing Partners Diversity Initiative celebrates third networking reception

Over ninety minority partners, associates, judges, managing, hiring and diversity partners came together on Oct. 19 at a reception hosted by Maguire & Schneider to celebrate the ever increasing diversity of the profession in Central Ohio.

For the third year, new associates and established associates and partners of color came together to meet significant leaders in the legal community as a part of the Columbus Bar Association's Managing Partners Diversity Initiative. This gathering meets one of the objectives of the initiative, to increase the retention and promotion rates for law clerks and attorneys of color. An increased sense of community is fostered among the minority attorneys when they interact with their peers in other firms and the see the support given to them by the leadership from the bar and bench.

Hosting this annual event is one way of supporting the diversity initiative and, immediately after the 2004 reception, Patrick Maguire, managing partner of Maguire & Schneider, volunteered his firm as the host for 2005. Bricker & Eckler did the same for the first reception in 2003, followed by Baker and Hostetler in 2004. This intensity of commitment is evidenced by the increase of minority attorneys at all levels. Partners are considered critical recruitment magnets, as they participate in the leadership of the firm.

Since the baseline survey of diversity in the firms in 2000 to the last survey in 2005, the number of minority attorneys at the partnership level has increased from 13 to 33, and associates from 31 to 70. Diversity levels increased in firms of every size since 2000. Small firms went from 1.3 percent to 7 percent minority attorneys (3 to 23). Medium-sized firms went from 5.8 percent to 10 percent minority attorneys (16 to 31). Large law firms went from 3.7 percent to 7 percent minority attorneys (27 to 55). While the number of all attorneys has grown 15 percent since 2000 (186 attorneys), the number of minority attorneys has grown 137 percent (63 attorneys).

This pioneering effort has not gone unnoticed, with no less than three awards on the local, state and national levels since 2003. Diversity & the Bar, a national diversity magazine, featured the efforts in Columbus on the cover and main story of their July/August 2005 issue. Last but not least, your Columbus Bar's Board of Governors has had an active role with leadership spanning from former President Carl Smallwood at the inception to the fifth and current President, Sally Bloomfield.

Participants in the Managing Partners Diversity Initiative are Bailey Cavalieri, Baker & Hostetler, Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, Blaugrund Herbert & Martin, Bricker & Eckler, Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs, Carlile Patchen & Murphy, Carpenter & Lipps, Chester Willcox & Saxbe, Crabbe Brown & James, Hahn Loeser + Parks, Isaac Brant Ledman & Teetor, Jones Day, Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter, Lane Alton & Horst, Luper Neidenthal & Logan, Maguire & Schneider, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, Reminger & Reminger, Schottenstein Zox & Dunn, Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Thompson Hine, Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease, and Wiles Boyle Burkholder & Bringardner. In addition to the managing partners and the Columbus Bar, other participants include Capital University Law School, The Ohio State University Moritz College Of Law and the John Mercer Langston Bar Association.

Sally Bloomfield, Keith Schneider and Mike Zatezalo welcomed over ninety to the third annual networking reception of the Managing Partners Diversity Initiative.

Rick Pfeiffer and Patsy Thomas contemplate where to start: hors d'ouevres or dessert?

Taheerah El-Amin, Janine Hancock Jones and Kysha Currence are representative of the 137 percent increase of attorneys of color since 2000 in the diversity initiative firms.

Judge Reece makes point with Necol Russell-Washington while Alvin Mathews observes the spirited conversation.

Eventually everyone made their way from the newly decorated offices of Maguire & Schneider, the hosts for this year's reception, to the stunning view from the building's rooftop.