Financial Times Names Morgan Lewis Most Innovative Firm for Diversity & Inclusion

NEW YORK, December 13, 2021: Citing Morgan Lewis’s signature Mobilizing for Equality Task Force, the Financial Times named the firm the winner in the Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion category as part of its 2021 Innovative Lawyers North America Report. The annual report recognizes law firms and practitioners deploying innovative solutions to affect change in the legal profession and communities.

Led by Firm Chair Jami McKeon and global leader of the Labor & Employment practice Grace Speights, Mobilizing for Equality (MFE) was honored for its sweeping approach to addressing systemic racism. MFE involves hundreds of lawyers and professional staff across 14 working groups targeting different areas of racial justice and equality.

“It is exciting to see all parts of our firm come together, often in partnership with many of our clients and outside organizations who share our values, to push toward racial equality and justice with actions that are impactful and long lasting,” Ms. McKeon said. “It is truly an honor to receive such a meaningful recognition from the Financial Times for our firm’s commitment and innovation to making a real and lasting change in the long quest for racial justice.”

MFE’s 14 working groups bring together hundreds of lawyers and staff in common cause to pursue critical investments, voting rights, economic development, and education solutions, among others. In the past year, the firm collaborated with clients on 42 MFE projects and collectively donated more than $1 million to racial justice organizations in individual contributions. The sole mission of one MFE working group, Measuring our Progress, is to ensure the effectiveness of our efforts. A few of MFE’s early accomplishments include:

• Securing a ruling for the Georgia NAACP preventing an individual voter from obtaining a temporary restraining order to stop the state from certifying its 2020 US presidential election results.
• Working with the Campaign Legal Center to represent the League of Women Voters in successfully challenging state rules that disproportionately disenfranchise minority communities.
• Partnering with the Harlem Chamber of Commerce to host financial literacy workshops, focused on uplifting entrepreneurs of color.
• Partnering with the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School to review the police response in Madison, Wisconsin, to protests after George Floyd’s murder.

A full annual report will be forthcoming in the new year. In addition to our win for Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion, Morgan Lewis was a finalist in three other FT Innovative categories: Innovation in the Business of Law, Innovation in People and Skills, and Most Innovative Law Firm in North America: Business of Law.