Fish & Richardson announced that Kristine McKinney, the firm’s Chief Professional Development Officer, has received the 2018 Diversity Leader Award from Profiles in Diversity Journal. The award recognizes the individuals and companies that “view challenges and opportunities through the lens of diversity and inclusion, as a means to achieving business success.”
McKinney was one of 24 Diversity Leader recipients, which included executives from HP Inc., Aflac, American Airlines, and State Street Corporation.
“Since joining us last year, Kristine has worked tirelessly to advance diversity and inclusion in the firm, and we are very proud of her efforts and unwavering commitment to this mission. As a firm that serves the world’s greatest visionaries, we know that creativity and innovation almost inevitably are the result of seeing the world from multiple different perspectives. Having a diverse team enables us to provide better service to our clients,” said Peter J. Devlin, president of Fish & Richardson.
Innovation has been central to advancing diversity and inclusion at Fish for many years, with a renewed focus and strategy in 2017. Over twelve years ago the firm was one of the first to launch a 1L Diversity Fellowship Program, which provides annual fellowships to diverse first-year law students and includes a paid summer associate position, a $10,000 scholarship, and year-round mentoring. Fish was also one of the original 15 law firms to participate in the pilot OnRamp Fellowship Program, a unique re-entry program that matches experienced women lawyers returning to the legal profession with law firms for a one-year paid fellowship. Most recently Fish launched a strategic plan that articulates specific programs and key performance indicators to measure success in diversity and inclusion. As a result of this focused strategy, in 2017 Fish held a leadership summit for the firm’s affinity group leaders, was an inaugural signatory with Diversity Lab to pilot the "Mansfield Rule," which requires law firms to consider women and attorneys of color for at least 30% of the candidate pool for leadership roles, and the firm launched enhanced parental leave benefits.