Akin Gump Concludes 2021 DEI-Focused Program Series with Native American Heritage Month Event
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(Washington, D.C.) Akin Gump recently concluded its 2021 series of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-focused programs with a Native American Heritage Month program featuring Crystal Echo Hawk, president and CEO of IllumiNative.
The DEI program series, which features distinguished speakers on a variety of DEI topics, is part of Akin Gump’s firmwide DEI strategy, which includes leadership commitment and engagement, professional development and inclusion, recruiting and the diversity pipeline, and strategic partnerships. The Native American Heritage Month program featured Ms. Echo Hawk discussing “How To Be a Native Ally,” which covered changing the narrative, why Native representation matters, and how to uplift Native voices.
Other programs featured in this series over the course of 2021 included:
- Black History Month Program – Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett discussed mental health in the African American community and the impact of the dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19.
- Women’s History Month Program – Partners Arshi Siddiqui (public law and policy), Esther Lander (labor), and Parvin Moyne (litigation), as well as senior advisor Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (public law and policy) discussed how issues impacting women may be addressed by the Biden-Harris administration.
- Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month Program – Richard Lui, MSNBC news anchor, discussed his journey growing up as an Asian American and the ongoing violence and hate incidents against the AAPI community.
- Pride Month Program – Jocelyn Samuels, Vice Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Brad Sears, founding executive director at the Williams Institute, discussed public policy regarding LGBTQ+ rights.
- Juneteenth Program– Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed, the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, spoke about her new book On Juneteenth and the integral importance of Juneteenth to American history.
- Celebration of the Life of Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. – Chairperson Kim Koopersmith moderated a discussion with close friends of our late partner and civil rights icon Vernon E. Jordan, including Ursula Burns (former CEO of Xerox), Ken Chenault (former CEO of American Express), Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Harvard University) and Anne Robinson (general counsel of Vanguard).
- Hispanic Heritage Month Program – Ileana Ros-Lehtinen discussed her career in public service, including being the first Latina to serve in the U.S. Congress.
- National Disability Employment Awareness Month – Attorney, producer and advocate Leah Romond and RespectAbility board chairperson and Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Board of Education "Ollie" Cantos shared best practices in disability inclusion.
Nimesh Patel, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Akin Gump, commented, “We have been tremendously proud to offer members of the firm access to such a meaningful suite of DEI-focused programs throughout the year. Our firmwide speaker series is designed to educate and raise awareness among our lawyers and business services professionals and to foster dialogue and connection. We have also offered DEI-focused programs in our international offices that are focused on key issues in the country or region.”
In addition to the program series, this summer the firm also launched a firmwide Stand Against Hate campaign in which more than 450 members of the firm joined together to collectively travel 50,000 miles to Stand Against Hate. As a result, the firm donated $50,000 equally among three organizations that fight for civil and human rights.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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