DENVER (May 25, 2007) - Holland & Hart LLP announces a Summer Associate Diversity Scholarship and an Academic Year Diversity Law Clerk Program.
Holland & Hart is the first firm in the Rocky Mountain region to offer a $10,000 Summer Associate Diversity Scholarship for second year law students. This scholarship will be available to students at all accredited law schools. Each year the firm's Diversity and Recruitment Committees will choose a student who will receive $10,000 to be applied toward law school tuition or other expenses. Additionally, the scholarship recipient will work as a paid 2008 summer associate. This new Summer Associate Diversity Scholarship is in addition to the firm's current Diversity Scholarships, which are offered to incoming first year law students at both the University of Colorado and University of Denver and have recently increased to an award of $7500 at each school.
Holland & Hart has also established an Academic Year Diversity Law Clerk Program, which will be launched at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year. Clerks hired through this program will work part-time at the firm during their second or third year of law school. Selection criteria include strong academic credentials, ethnic and racial background, sexual orientation, disability, and previous career experience.
"These two new initiatives illustrate our commitment to stay on the cutting-edge of diversity recruitment efforts," said firm Chair, Paul Phillips. "We see this as a business necessity because we recognize the strength of talent and breadth of perspective that come from a diverse workforce."
"We share Holland & Hart's concern for making the legal profession more diverse, better reflecting the client community and the state as a whole," said David Getches, Dean of the University of Colorado School of Law. "The opportunities in this new program will be invaluable to our students."
Dean Beto Juarez from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law states, "This program is a concrete demonstration of Holland & Hart's continuing commitment to diversity in the legal profession. The firm's acknowledgement of diversity as a vital component of our profession will greatly benefit our students and our society."
Holland & Hart has been a long-time leader in diversity initiatives. The firm was the first to adopt the Colorado Pledge to Racial and Ethnic Diversity. It also led 23 other Denver law firms of all sizes to sign and adopt the pledge in 1993 and again in 2000.