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. By opening doors that once were closed, we help our society move toward equal opportunity for all.

Activities

Our diversity efforts date back over 30 years. Butler Snow was one of the first law firms in our area to recruit, hire, and retain women as partners. We were also one of the first to recruit African-Americans and other minorities.

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 interview at recruiting forums for minority students, including the annual Southeastern Minority Recruiting Consortium in Atlanta.
• 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

• Christy Jones, who was one of our first woman associates, is a nationally renowned trial lawyer, an elected member of our Executive Committee and Chair of our Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Healthcare Industry group.
• In 2006, we hosted the first annual “Women in Government Day,” spearheaded by four women in our Public Law group.  Two hundred women elected officials in Mississippi were invited for a day of networking, and Lt. Governor Amy Tuck was the keynote speaker.
• We hosted a reception honoring Dr. Shirley Raines, the first woman President of the University of Memphis and the first woman Chair of the Memphis Regional Chamber, at our Memphis office in December 2006.
• One of our attorneys, Julie Ellis, serves as the National President for the International Aviation Women’s Association and recently presided over its international conference in China. 

Sponsorships/Professional Activities

• We recently 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. 
• We sponsor numerous diversity-related events and take part in numerous diversity organizations in the communities where we practice. In 2006, 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. 
• In 2006, 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.