Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP has a longstanding commitment to ensuring that our firm reflects the diversity of the world in which we practice. We encourage all of our attorneys to develop mindfulness of how they contribute to the ecosystem of life, our respective networks, and the activities impact directly and indirectly. This also lends opportunities for all our attorneys to participate in organizations and associations that enhance their professional, civic and cultural development. Hinshaw's affinity networks help provide a source of internal community, internal cultural education, and external community engagement. They engage these groups of attorneys with the legal and business communities, sponsoring, presenting and attending events as well as supporting causes of concern to their respective communities. Hinshaw believes that encouraging and supporting our attorneys in diversity efforts creates positive business, economic and social consequences for our firm and the communities we serve.

We focus on three-fold objectives:

• Attorney Development — to help our attorneys, including diverse attorneys, to become the best legal practitioners in their respective fields of concentration.
• Relationship Building— to establish and foster bonds of trust that make our client, practice, and industry teams stronger and more inclusive.
• Civic Engagement— to enable our firm, attorneys, and professional staff to become leaders and agents of change in our respective communities and to partner with current and prospective clients in unique ways.

We are proud to share that Hinshaw has committed to the following impactful DE&I initiatives:

• The firm has proudly achieved recognition as a Mansfield Rule Certified Law Firm for three consecutive years. In 2022, Hinshaw was certified as a Mansfield Rule 5.0 law firm, the firm was certified again in 2023 with Mansfield Rule 6.0, and received certification in 2024 with Mansfield Rule 2023-2024. The program, managed by Diversity Lab, aims to increase and sustain diversity in leadership within law firms by broadening the pool of those considered for senior lateral attorney job openings, firm governance opportunities, equity partner promotions, and firm leadership positions. Firms agree to consider broad slates of qualified talent for leadership roles that include at least 30% historically underrepresented lawyers—such as women lawyers, underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities. Since implementation, Hinshaw has exceeded 44% in representation of diverse talent in leadership appointments and executive management, in addition to gains in recruiting and promotions.
• Our firm has been a founding sponsor of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity(LCLD) program and has been fortunate to have a fellow selected to several classes since 2011. Founded in 2009, the LCLD Committee has grown to an organization of more than 350 Members, who serve as either general counsel of major corporations or managing partners of the nation's leading law firms. United by a spirit of activism and personal commitment, LCLD Committee members participate widely in the programs they've created—leading by example, taking action, and challenging the legal profession to prepare future generations of diverse talent for the highest positions of leadership. View our firm's LCLD Committee members.
• Our Summer Diversity Scholarship is offered each year to law students for their final year of law school. Please visit our Summer Diversity Scholarship page for more information.
• In 2022, we also began offering an LGBTQ+ Summer Fellowship to law students who have a strong interest in advancing the LGBTQ+ community within the legal profession. Please visit our Summer LGBTQ+ Fellowship page for more information.