LeClairRyan Recognized as Top 100 Firm for Diversity

RICHMOND, Va. – LeClairRyan is pleased to announce that it has been named as one of Multicultural Law Magazine's "Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity" for 2010. Additionally, the firm received recognition in the following specialized listings: "Top 25 Law Firms for African-Americans," "Top 25 Law Firms for Native-Americans," "Top 50 Law Firms for Associates," and "Top 100 Law Firms for Women."

LeClairRyan maintains a diverse roster of employees and has launched numerous diversity initiatives to support its efforts. Some of the firm's diversity initiatives include: quarterly, firm-wide diversity awareness and inclusion meetings and a women's success task force. Also, as part of the diversity program, LeClairRyan founded, and continues its involvement with, the Richmond Legal Diversity Alliance ("RLDA"). The RLDA is a collective of Richmond-area legal employers dedicated to establishing Richmond as a city of "employers of choice" by enhancing diversity within their respective organizations.

Through its Diversity and Recruiting Departments, in 2009, LeClairRyan established the Oliver Hill – LeClairRyan Scholarship, to be awarded to a student of color at a Virginia law school who most exemplifies the late Oliver W. Hill's qualities of legal excellence and selfless dedication to the fight for justice. Hill, along with Thurgood Marshall and other lions of civil rights litigation, succeeded in demolishing "separate but equal" in 1954 with the landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. In 2010, the scholarship will be awarded for the second consecutive year.

Multicultural Law Magazine addresses matters of diversity and inclusion and provides information that is valuable to improving the careers of minority and women lawyers. The publication reaches more than 40,000 attorneys and law students. Annually, the magazine’s publishers distribute surveys to law firms across the nation and from that data, create the "Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity" listing. For more information about Multicultural Law Magazine visit www.multiculturallaw.com.