People
Services
Miller Canfield Shortlisted for 2020 Chambers USA Diversity & Inclusion, Pro Bono Awards
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Chambers USA has shortlisted the firm and one of its notable attorneys in the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America 2020 honors. The awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and firms for advancing diversity and inclusion in the U.S. and Canada.
Miller Canfield Hiring Chair/Diversity and Professional Development Principal Michelle Crockett has been shortlisted in the Diversity & Inclusion Lawyer of the Year category, and the firm's Pro Bono practice is shortlisted for the Pro Bono Program of the Year for 2020.
"We could not be prouder of Michelle and of our Pro Bono team, which is led by Pro Bono Counsel Wendy Richards," said Miller Canfield CEO Michael McGee. "Their dedication and hard work have made the firm stronger and more inclusive, as well as making the communities we serve fairer and more equitable."
Miller Canfield has been a longtime leader in pro bono service. During 2019 and 2020, the firm was engaged in dozens of complex matters in pursuit of promoting access to justice for all. Notable projects focused on the areas of:
- Prisoners' rights/criminal justice, particularly assisting prisoners who had been sentenced as juveniles to mandatory life without parole
- Immigrants' rights, and a major class action in collaboration with the ACLU of Michigan and others in the highly publicized Hamama v. Adducci to protect hundreds of Iraqi nationals living in the U.S. from removal without due process in immigration courts
- Voting rights, and a partnership with Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Brennan Center for Justice and the Association of Pro Bono Counsel to create state-specific guides on how and why to become an election poll worker
Crockett's achievements include leading the firm to be included in the first class of major law firms nationwide to pilot the Mansfield Rule, which requires us to affirmatively consider women and minority candidates when making hiring and promotion considerations (30 percent of the candidate pool must be women, minority and LGBTQ applicants). Miller Canfield was the only firm in Michigan to meet Diversity Lab's stringent standards for Mansfield Certification Plus and, after two years, remains the only firm in Michigan to earn the designation.
These achievements would not be possible without Crockett's relentless efforts to create actionable, measurable, results-driven initiatives that foster meaningful and sustainable change. She developed an aggressive two-year diversity plan that sets specific targets within leadership ranks, including the firm's managing directors, to increase representation across the board.
The results have been remarkable. Specifically:
- 49% of Miller Canfield's associates are women
- 40% of the firm's non-equity principals are women
- 40% of managing directors are women
- 40% of resident directors are minorities and women
- 78% of the firm's 2019 summer associate class were women
- 55% of 2019 summer associates were minorities
Firms and individuals are selected based on extensive research by Chambers USA and its D&I team. Chambers & Partners and Chambers USA are leading law firm and lawyer research and ranking publications that rank the top lawyers and law firms across the U.S. and globally. Winners of the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America 2020 will be announced on Sept. 24, 2020.
