Our firm

Diversity + Inclusion

We are committed to fostering diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity in our firm and across our profession.

We believe that diversity enhances our performance and provides us with a rich and rewarding workplace. Our goal is to create a law firm culture that reflects the increasing diversity of the clients and communities we serve. We are proud of our deep roots in some of America’s most diverse cities, and we honor the broad range of backgrounds and perspectives that form the fabric of our firm. We celebrate our employees’ differences across race, gender, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation, and we strive to treat our lawyers and staff fairly.

We are committed to attracting, recruiting, mentoring, and promoting diverse attorneys and staff through involvement in organizations and programs that foster change. These include the ABA’s Council on Racial and Ethnic Justice and Women in Profession, the Task Force on Diversity in the Profession, the Association of Women Attorneys, minority job fairs, and diversity clerkship programs, as well as our own Diversity 1L Scholars Program, Diversity Committee, Women’s Initiative Network, African American Affinity Group, Asian Affinity Group, Hispanic Affinity Group, and LGBTQ Affinity Group.

Our leadership sets the tone for creating and sustaining a diverse workplace.

42% of our attorneys are diverse

45% of our Policy Committee members are diverse

29% of our Members (partners) are diverse

100% of the members promoted in 2020 were diverse.

The firm’s Diversity Committee, comprised of partners and associates across our footprint, oversees our efforts to recruit and retain diverse lawyers and professional staff and create an inclusive environment enabling all of our employees to succeed. The Committee holds monthly firm-wide meetings that are open to all lawyers for discussion of diverse topics and issues. The Committee also works closely with our Recruitment and Associate committees to enhance both the recruitment and retention of diverse lawyers.


Deirdre McGlinchey
Lauren Campisi
Erin Parkinson
Margeaux Roush

Rudy Aguilar
Manny Farach
Dhruv Sharma

Heather Alexis
Kyle Ferachi
Stewart Spielman

Camille Bryant
Kelly Lipinski
Eliska Plunkett

Our attorneys dedicate their time and talents to improving diversity outcomes in the legal profession, serving in leadership roles within diversity-related organizations. For example, our firm is involved with the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, which is named in honor of Louis A. Martinet, an African-American lawyer who was a key figure during the civil rights efforts surrounding the end of Reconstruction. The Martinet Society began during the midst of the civil rights struggle with the objectives of encouraging the interchange of ideas, promoting legal scholarship, and the administration of justice.

We were a proud sponsor of the study underlying the provocative, landmark treatise, “Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms,” published by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.

Diversity Fellowship Program

In 2008, we launched a Diversity Fellowship Program for first-year law students. That program is now part of the 1L Scholars Program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), of which McGlinchey Stafford is a founding member. Each year, we have sponsored an attorney for the LCLD’s Fellows Program, demonstrating the firm’s commitment to identifying talented diverse lawyers and helping them reach their individual potential. In 2019, the LCLD recognized McGlinchey as a 2019 Law Firm Top Performer and 2019 Compass Award winner, designations reserved for the most active LCLD Member Corporations and Law Firms who personally attend the LCLD Annual Meeting and participate in the Fellows, Pathfinder, and pipeline programs. Earning both recognitions signals our commitment to building more diverse organizations and a more inclusive legal profession.

Women's Initiative Network (WIN)

In addition to our active participation in the LCLD, we also provide informal training and mentoring through our Women’s Initiative Network “WIN”, which hosts events and programs directed to our firm’s female attorneys throughout the year. Examples of WIN programs include a breakfast panel discussion with an outside general counsel and appellate judge on their “pearls of wisdom” for career success and a networking program involving our women attorneys and current and prospective clients.

African American Affinity Group

McGlinchey’s African American Affinity Group is a network for the firm’s African American attorneys. Our mission is to help foster an equitable and inclusive workplace for all, by spotlighting unique issues that African American employees face within the workplace and in their greater communities and working to create solutions. In doing so, we work hand in hand with the Diversity Committee to champion initiatives and programs that enhance diversity within the firm.

Learn more about the firm's celebration of Juneteenth and resources to learn about and reflect upon the effects of systemic racism.

Lionel R. Collins Dinner

As another example, McGlinchey Stafford worked with several plaintiffs and with the support of organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Martinet Society on the landmark 1991 cases Clark v. Roemer and Chisom v. Roemer, which resulted in the desegregation of Louisiana’s Trial, Appellate, and Supreme Courts. For more than 20 years, McGlinchey Stafford has co-hosted the Lionel R. Collins Dinner, held each year in conjunction with the National Bar Association’s convention, to commemorate progress made by African-American judges since these significant cases.

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