Diversity

Our Commitment

Butler Snow is strongly committed to diversity in the workplace. No law firm can adequately serve clients unless it brings a range of perspectives and experiences to every issue.  An open, inclusive work environment inspires more creative thinking and solutions.  Diversity benefits our firm, our profession, our clients, our communities, and society at large. 

We seek to hire, develop, and advance, on the basis of ability, attorneys, managers and other employees regardless of race, religion, color, gender, age, or national origin.  We are working to ensure that the composition of the firm at all levels reflects the communities where we practice.

Butler Snow's actions underscore our commitment.  We promote outreach through professional associations, mentoring, recruiting, sponsorships and networking.  By dedicating ourselves to diversity, we field a stronger legal team and ensure that clients will continue to receive a high standard of professionalism, service and value.

Hiring and Recruiting

• We interview at Howard University Law School, and we recruit at several other law schools that have a significant percentage of minority students.
• We participate in the Clerkship Interaction Program of the Young Lawyers Division of the Mississippi Bar. 
• We sponsor and mentor a Fredrick Douglas Appellate Moot Court team at Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson.

Professional Women and Minorities

• Christy Jones, who was one of our first female associates, is a nationally renowned trial lawyer, and Chair of our Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Industry Group.  The 2007 Guide to the World’s Leading Product Liability Lawyers named Jones one of the Top 10 product liability lawyers in the world.  The Mississippi Women Lawyers Association also honored Jones with its 2008 Outstanding Mississippi Women Lawyer award.
• Julie Ellis serves on the Board of the Memphis Regional Chamber.  She has moderated the Environmental Panel for the American Bar Association (ABA) Air and Space Forum and will moderate the Environmental Panel at the International Aviation Women’s Association Annual Conference in October.
• In 2007, Ann Bowden-Hollis was appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to a three-year term on the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions. She was also elected president of the Harrison County Bar Association for 2008.
• Melody McAnally was awarded the Mississippi Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award at the July 2008 Annual Bar Convention.
• Melissa Baltz is the co-chair of the Women in the Profession Committee for the Hinds County Bar Association.  The committee gave presentations to college students at four area colleges as well as the committee co-sponsored a seminar with the Mississippi Women Lawyers Association on Getting and Keeping Clients for women attorneys.
• In 2007, Grace Tate was named in the Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40.
• Cara Baer and Hemant Gupta were elected to the board of the Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association (TIPLA) in 2007.
• Effie Bean Cozart serves as the Assistant Diversity Director for the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division for the 2007-2008 bar year and is Chair of the Diversity Committee of the Young Lawyers Division of the Tennessee Bar Association for the 2008-09 bar year.
• Rod Richmond was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation.  One of the many missions of the Foundation is to improve the administration of justice through the support of organizations which provide legal services to the poor and needy.

Sponsorships/Professional Activities

• Fifteen Butler Snow attorneys participated in the Piney Woods Summer Legal Institute.  We hosted a lunch for 25 students on Thursday, June 18, and had a panel discussion in the Courtroom with 11 attorneys.  The attorneys talked to the students about their background, path to the legal profession and law practice in general and several attorneys assisted the students with preparation for an oral argument.  They coached the students in oral argument delivery techniques, legal reasoning and argument development.  LeAnn Nealey and Bob Anderson served as judges for their oral arguments on June 25.  Additionally, Grace Tate and Van Turner led a discussion on "Business Etiquette." 
• We annually sponsor numerous diversity-related events and take part in numerous diversity organizations in the communities where we practice. In 2007, these included Hinds County Bar Association Women In the Profession Committee; Facing History & Ourselves Dinner held in Memphis; Hinds County Bar Association Diversity Roundtable Conference; Community Foundation of Greater Jackson Women's Fund; Central Mississippi Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women; Howard University's Public Interest Law Society Event; American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" Luncheon; Black Law Students Association of the University of Mississippi Law Center; the William Winter Institute For Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi, and many others.
• Butler Snow annually hosts “Women in Government Day.”  The event is spearheaded by four women in our Public Law Group.  Each year, more than two hundred female elected officials in across Mississippi are invited for a day of both networking and professional and personal development.  Among the highlights of this event is the keynote speech given by a female leaders of the community.
• We received the Hinds County Bar Association's Law Firm Diversity Leadership Award for our support of that bar's Diversity Roundtable Conference, which had speakers and panelists from 15 Fortune 500 companies with over 300 business leaders, state officials, and attorneys from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas in attendance.
• In 2007, over 40 of our lawyers attended national, state, or local diversity-related events sponsored by bars, professional organizations, companies, and educational institutions, including events sponsored by the ABA, Baxter International Inc., BellSouth Corporation, Defense Research Institute, Federal Bar Association, Hinds County Bar Association, Magnolia Bar Association, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Women in Law, Mississippi Bar Association, National Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, Tougaloo College and University of Mississippi.
• Several attorneys are active members of diversity-related committees of the Mississippi Bar Association, Hinds County Bar Association, and the Jackson Young Lawyers Association, including one serving as the Chair of the Diversity Committee of the Jackson Young Lawyers Association.