At White and Steele, diversity is not an initiative, it is ingrained as part of our firm culture.
White and Steele is committed to creating an inclusive atmosphere where mutual respect, ideas, and solutions are part of our everyday environment. We recognized early on that different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences enhance our organization bringing valuable, creative, and innovative solutions to our broad client base. It also reflects the cross‐section of the Mountain West community, judges, jurors, and the legal system as a whole. To accomplish this goal, White and Steele eliminates artificial barriers and provides support for individual and team success.
White and Steele knows that dedicating resources is the primary way to reach its goal of inclusiveness. We are an active member of the Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI), which recognizes the importance of increasing the number of racially and ethnically diverse attorneys and professionals recruited, hired, and promoted by law firms in Colorado. As part of its outreach efforts, White and Steele joined the Colorado Pledge to Diversity 1L Summer Clerkship Program, a foundational program dedicated to introducing diverse law students to law firm and in‐house corporate legal department environments with the long‐term goal of increasing diverse hiring and retention. We also encourage and support our attorneys’ involvement in national, regional, and local bar associations, committees, and community activities recognizing that our talent often has influence beyond the firm’s walls. We don’t just leave it at that. Our female attorneys hold significant leadership roles in the firm’s management ranging from actively participating as practice group leaders to members of the firm’s Marketing, Diversity, and Hiring committees.
The mission of White and Steele’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee is to assist the firm in embracing the principle that diversity and inclusiveness are essential to the success of the firm. Through its work, the Committee hopes to reinforce and enhance the firm’s legal excellence, leadership, collaboration, and community by fostering new ideas, addressing issues, establishing benchmarks, recognizing successes, and providing guidance to the firm’s leadership regarding diversity and inclusiveness.
Enhancing diversity requires an ongoing commitment and we know there is always more to do in developing an inclusive workforce. White and Steele recognizes that recruitment without a focus on retention is counterproductive to firm goals, but also the practice of inclusivity. Our collegial environment is designed to provide guidance to new attorneys during early practice years while acknowledging the importance of early hands‐on experience and authority. With many of our attorneys coming from less traditional paths our approach to mentoring is individualized, not rigid.
White and Steele realizes that life isn’t always static. Changes in circumstances, one’s personal life, and family dynamics often require adjustments to the demands of the practice of law. We support and facilitate needed adjustments including modified and reduced work schedules. We foster a work environment that ensures that no one’s professional growth, experience, or advancement is limited because of race, color, sex, religion, creed, ethnic or national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, domestic partner status, or other categorization.
