Brooks Kushman’s Diversity Philosophy

Diversity drives success – the more diverse our experiences, the greater the opportunities to think outside the box and provide the best service possible to our clients.  Brooks Kushman has worked diligently to employ and retain a diverse employee base.  In recent years, Brooks Kushman has evaluated its success in diversifying its professional staff by gender, racial and ethnic diversity.

Mentoring

Brooks Kushman has developed a formal mentoring program to better integrate all new attorneys (first year associates and lateral hires) into the firm culture.  Our  mentorship program  assigns each new associate/patent agent hire with a senior associate or partner who practices in the same substantive area.  This assignment is designed to provide the new professional with a mentor with whom matters can be discussed, to provide training on substantive work assignments and to serve as a resource in addition to the partner who assigns the work.  The mentor also helps with prioritization of assignments so the new associate does not become overwhelmed. 

Partnerships to Increase Diversity

Brooks Kushman has increased its efforts to recruit diverse attorneys in several ways.  Informally, we developed relationships with minority professors at our local law schools to assist in identifying diverse attorneys who are interested in intellectual property career paths.  In addition, we contributed financially to the National Black Law Students’ Association Convention (“NBLSA”), held in Detroit, Michigan in March 2008.  Our financial contributions have included sponsoring a scholarship for recent graduates to study for the bar exam and being a vendor to recruit diverse attorneys during the annual convention.  We are working to establish similar liaison relationships with the local Hispanic and Asian bar associations to improve recruitment among the diverse law students who associate with these minority bar associations as well.  We also support the Judicial Externship program developed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to provide stipends for minority law students who are selected to work with judicial law clerks during the summer months.  Although the current economic conditions have caused us to reduce active recruitment efforts, we continue to network with various minority groups so that we will be in a better position to identify minority candidates when we reinvigorate our hiring efforts.

Brooks Kushman’s diversity philosophy has the full support of the firm’s management team.  In addition to supporting the NBLSA in March 2008, Brooks Kushman also provided a scholarship to assist the NBLSA graduates who are studying for the bar exam. 

Recruitment

In all of the firm’s recruitment efforts, diversity is a consideration.  We strive to include diverse candidates in our pool of potential hires and work diligently to identify and consider those individuals who possess the requisite technical skills and are ethnically or racially diverse.

As a result of the firm’s dedicated efforts, Brooks Kushman has:
 

• Increased the number of minority legal professionals (including African American, Chinese Americans, and Latino) to 10 percent;
• Increased the number of female legal professionals in the firm to 20 percent;
• Worked to improve the retention ratios of diverse attorneys/agents;
   

Through the above-described efforts, Brooks Kushman will continue to evaluate its commitment to diversity going forward.