At Bates White, we are deeply committed to fostering and maintaining a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. We recognize that each individual contributes unique ideas, perspectives, and interests that enable us to maintain a dynamic environment, encourage creativity, and deliver higher quality results for our clients.

Our employees come from all over the world, representing many ethnicities and backgrounds. We recruit from a wide range of institutions and a variety of academic fields including biology, business administration, economics, English, engineering, finance, mathematics, philosophy, physics, and statistics. We have employees who are fluent in a diverse set of languages including Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Part of our culture
Bates White’s dedication to diversity can be traced back to our founding in 1999. Mentoring, coaching, and educating have always been integrated into our culture. For example, when employees join Bates White, they are immediately teamed with a peer coach who serves as a sounding board and helps them learn about the firm. They are also assigned a sponsor who mentors and helps manage their professional development.

Our formal diversity efforts
In 2004, we launched a formal strategic diversity initiative. During 2005, we worked with an outside diversity consultant to conduct an assessment that analyzed our environment, established a baseline, and provided direction for our programs. Our diversity steering committee, led by the firm’s Managing Partner, developed a strategic plan outlining goals and strategies. Since then, we have made progress achieving our objectives. Our accomplishments include:

	Recruiting—we expanded the number of schools from which we recruit to include institutions with a more diverse pool of candidates and created a committee dedicated to attracting non-traditional candidates to the firm.
	Training—all of our employees have received formal diversity and inclusion training.
	Diversity/Inclusion Council—we recently launched a Diversity/Inclusion Council with representation from a diagonal and diverse cross-section of the firm that will continue implementing our initiatives and ensure diversity and inclusion are internalized into our culture.
	Accountability—we have built diversity metrics into our employee appraisal system, ensuring accountability at all levels. In 2007, we will conduct an assessment to measure progress on our initiatives.

Supporting the community
Our commitment does not stop inside the firm. Through our BW Community Connection program, we sponsor and participate in numerous charitable organizations and events at the local and national levels. Examples include Bread for the City, Lawyers Have Heart, Higher Achievement Program, D.C. Central Kitchen, Gilda’s Club, and the AIDS Walk.

We also support the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) by sponsoring its annual General Counsel Invitational golf tournament to raise funds for minority law students and hosted the MCCA Diversity Dialogue on September 19, 2006.