At Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, we actively promote diversity within our workplace through recruitment, mentoring, training and professional development programs that cultivate the individuality, talent and success of all of our attorneys. The firm recognizes the importance of creating the best environment for developing the strengths of our minority attorneys, as well as achieving diversity in our communities through service, pro bono work and partnerships with local and national organizations.

Our Firmwide Minority Retreat, held in 2006, was a day-long event attended by minority attorneys and key firm management from all offices. Designed to focus on policy issues and the development of initiatives to empower minorities to succeed within the firm, it highlighted why diversity is not only the right thing to do, but also a business imperative in today’s global marketplace.

The Katten Leadership Institute for Women of Color is an internal program designed for female attorneys of color at all of the firm’s offices. The Leadership Institute is the first program of its kind in the nation to proactively address the issue of women of color leaving law firms at a high rate by providing them with the tools that they need to ensure long-term success in their careers as attorneys at the firm. The institute covers topics including networking skills, career choices, internal and external visibility, maintaining personal strength and stamina, building support systems and marketing.

Katten is a member of the Chicago Committee for Minorities in Large Law Firms, an organization that seeks to promote the interests of minority attorneys in large law firms and to assist minority associates in making partnership. The firm recently became the committee’s new home through 2010, and Chief Diversity Partner Leslie Minier sits on the Committee’s Board of Directors.