From its inception in 1960, Adler Pollock & Sheehan has been built upon principles of diversity. AP&S is committed to fostering and maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment where religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation and marital and family status are understood, respected, and valued as qualities that make us better attorneys, citizens and human beings. Our attorneys reflect this commitment in their practice, in their interactions with clients, other members of the legal profession and the community.
In 2006, a Diversity Committee was created to further support and promote diversity efforts within the firm, the legal profession and the community at large. The Diversity Committee developed, and the firm has adopted, a Diversity Plan that provides the firm with a roadmap for diversity initiatives. The Diversity Plan is a step toward creating a firm environment which values, respects and encourages differences in attorneys, staff and the community.
The firm has a strong belief in the importance of hiring, retaining and promoting minority and female attorneys and maintaining a diverse workforce. AP&S believes that a diverse workforce enables us to better understand and serve our clients, as well as the communities we serve, and therefore, the firm has made diversity an integral element of each hiring decision. Through the firm’s formal mentoring program, new associates are provided with a mentor who provides guidance and assistance where necessary to support their business and professional development. Each office has an associate liaison so that the nature and amount of work assigned to each associate is carefully monitored. AP&S was one of Rhode Island’s first large firms to have a woman practice business law (when most women were practicing family law or general litigation). AP&S takes great pride in the fact that women and minority attorneys serve in a variety of leadership roles within the firm, including the Chair of the Litigation Department and on the Compensation Committee and Hiring Committee.
As part of its Diversity Plan, the firm established the AP&S Diversity Scholarship, a $10,000 scholarship to be awarded annually to a minority student entering his/her first year of law school. The scholarship is given to students with a demonstrated commitment to academic excellence and simultaneous commitment to the community. Students who receive the scholarship are encouraged to participate in the firm’s summer internship program with the hope that they will consider joining AP&S upon graduation.
In an effort to nurture urban business development, the firm partners with the Minority Investment Development Corporation and the R.I. Coalition for Minority Investment to offer pro bono legal services for business formations to minority-owned enterprises. The firm also provides pro bono services in both complex and routine proceedings as part of its commitment to ensuring equal justice under the law, regardless of financial resources.
AP&S attorneys are active participants in national organizations to promote diversity in the profession, such as the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the Minority Counsel Program of the American Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts. Our attorneys also serve as mentors to minority law students at Roger Williams University School of Law.
AP&S attorneys have a deep commitment to the communities in which they live and work. Through our attorneys’ leadership roles in dozens of civic and charitable organizations by providing advice on legal matters, and by generously contributing resourcesthe positive impact that AP&S has on our community is evident. AP&S recognizes that through our involvement in these activities, the AP&S Diversity Plan and other endeavors, we are continuing to make a concerted effort to diversify and enrich the firm and the profession, while also contributing to the overall betterment of our community.
For further information contact Pamela E. Berman, Chair, AP&S Diversity Committee pberman@apslaw.com
