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Firm Diversity

Professional Development


Training and Professional Development


Lawyers succeed with training and personal and professional development opportunities. At Baker Hostetler, these opportunities begin early on in an associate's career and continue through the partner level.

Associate Academy


Every first-year associate is invited to attend our Associate Academy within six months of joining the firm. From business development and communication skills to due diligence and legal writing, the Associate Academy provides targeted training for our first-year attorneys, while giving them the opportunity to meet and network with peers from other offices.

Eighteen first-year associates gathered in Cleveland in February for Baker Hostetler’s 12th Annual Associate Academy, a four-day program featuring presentations from industry experts and a number of Baker Hostetler partners, including Executive Partner Steven Kestner.


The program was much more labor intensive than I anticipated. I expected a "conference" but it was more like lawyer boot camp, with opportunities to relax and network mixed in. Dinner with firm management was extremely enlightening. We had candid discussions about our concerns, suggestions and opinions regarding the direction of the firm and our future development. They didn’t shy away from the tough answers. Instead, they revealed that they had many of the same concerns for the changes growth would bring and gave honest feedback on where they felt the firm was heading and how we ALL, as members of the firm, were going to get there. 
 
  • Nicole Samuels, associate, Washington, D.C., office

To read more comments about Associate Academy, click for our LEAP newsletter.

 


Above: The 2011 Associate Academy class

Diverse Attorney Conference


Held every two years, Baker Hostetler's Diverse Attorney Conference includes two days of small-group discussions, general sessions on a variety of professional development topics and multiple networking opportunities for attendees. More than 60 attorneys representing all of the firm's offices, as well as Executive Partner Steve Kestner and other members of firm management, attended the 2010 conference.

Werten F.W. Bellamy, Jr., founder of the annual "Charting Your Own Course" career development conference for minority attorneys was the keynote speaker, opening the conference with his presentation, "The Roadmap to Your Future—Your Career Trajectory."

  
The Diverse Attorney Conference is a terrific opportunity to deepen relationships with other diverse lawyers and with members of senior management. We received training on client development and the importance of your personal brand. I am proud to be a member of this group of top-notch lawyers.
 
  • Jeremy Atencio, Denver associate 
 

 Women Partners Retreat and Program Sponsorships


In addition to the Minority Attorney Conference, the firm held its first Women Partners Retreat in 2005, which brought together our women partners and of counsel from around the country for a two-day event. The event included an opening address by Executive Partner Steve Kestner, sessions on the current status of the firm, leveraging personal strengths, marketing, methods to improve hiring and retention of women, managing work/life balance, advancing to management and a "Women Helping Women" panel that included counsel from firm clients Nationwide Insurance, Forest City Enterprises, the Capital Group and American Greetings.

The event concluded with an open forum, "Where Do We Go From Here?" which provided the context in which the firm's Women's Committee can continue its work to provide recommendations to management with respect to the distinctive challenges facing women in the legal profession.


The Women Partners Retreat allowed our women partners to not only benefit individually—from the sessions on leveraging personal strengths, personal marketing and business development—but also provided a forum for discussing firmwide initiatives with members of the firm's management team.

The momentum generated during the discussions of firmwide topics did not end with the retreat—it will act as a catalyst for our Women's Committee to be able to further define programs and initiatives that will support, educate, and promote women associates and partners within the firm. 
 
  • Lisa Pennington, Office Managing Partner and Chair, 
    Firmwide Women's Committee, Houston Office


We also encourage our lawyers to participate in various local, regional and national events that aim to advance the case for women in leadership roles in the legal profession. The firm continues to look for opportunities to sponsor programs whose goals match our own.

Lawyers in Leadership Positions


Our commitment to hiring, retaining and promoting minority and women lawyers manifests itself in the significant number who currently hold management positions within the firm that include: Policy Committee Member, Office Managing Partner, Practice Team Leader and Office Practice Group Coordinator.