Minority Media and Telecom Council Honors Akin Gump with Pro Bono Award
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(Washington, D.C.) – In a ceremony held today in Washington, D.C., the Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) honored Akin Gump’s pro bono contributions by awarding the firm its MMTC Excellence in Pro Bono Service Award, which recognizes “extraordinary service to the cause of diversity and inclusion in the media and telecommunications industries.”
Akin Gump, through the efforts of communications and information technology practice head Tom Davidson, Supreme Court head Patricia Millett, and appellate practice senior counsel Ruthanne Deutsch, represented MMTC and a bipartisan group of six former FCC commissioners and a former FCC general counsel in filing an amici curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the recent affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas.
The brief urged the Court “to reaffirm that efforts by States to promote diversity in higher education on the terms prescribed by this Court in prior decisions and in reliance on this Court’s directives are constitutionally permissible under Grutter v. Bollinger” and expressed the amici’s “strong interest in this case because the promotion of diversity in higher education is essential to the promotion of diversity in the mass media—an objective for which [they] have long strived.”
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 850 attorneys in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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