Lowenstein Sandler has invested the time and financial resources to put substance behind our commitment to diversity. Examples of that investment are demonstrated by the following:

Lowenstein Sandler Scholars Program
Now in its third year, the Lowenstein Sandler Scholars Program provides each of two 1L minority students from select law schools (including Rutgers, Seton Hall, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Georgetown, and Penn) with a $10,000 scholarship for educational expenses (renewable for the third year of law school) and a summer internship with the firm.

STRIDES – Advancing Women in Business – A Lowenstein Sandler Initiative
STRIDES is a Lowenstein Sandler initiative that promotes visibility, leadership opportunities, and quality peer interaction for women in business. STRIDES brings together mid-to-senior level executive and professional women to focus on key career issues. Events include casual roundtable discussions, panel presentations and formal speakers. Timely books, article or studies relating to women's advancement in the workplace frequently inspire the topics for STRIDES events.

American Conference on Diversity
This organization, dedicated to educating and empowering current and future leaders by fighting discrimination and promoting mutual understanding and inclusion, operates a leadership institute that brings together urban students from inner-city high schools with their suburban peers for a variety of student-level programs. The Conference supports this mission by providing diversity training to companies throughout the state’s business community. In 2007, Managing Director Michael L. Rodburg was named Chair of the organization’s Board of Trustees.

Rutgers Minority Summer Program
Lowenstein Sandler has a 30-year history of sponsoring and partnering with this program, through which the firm attends an annual recruitment fair sponsored by Rutgers University School of Law; sponsors an annual dinner for 1L Minority Student Program participants to present the components of a successful summer internship; hires at least one first-year minority student as a summer law clerk; and sponsors the Rutgers Law School Program, whereby the firm funds a student to work for the summer in the public interest law or government sector.

Lowenstein Sandler Annual Mentoring Dinner Program
This annual event features a prominent in-house counsel speaking to the firm’s junior attorneys about mentoring-related issues. Laurie A. Carter, Vice President and General Counsel of The Juilliard School, spoke in 2007. Prior speakers included PD Villarreal from Schering-Plough (Vice President & Associate General Counsel of Litigation & Conflict Management) and Cornell Boggs from Tyco Plastics & Adhesives (Vice President and General Counsel).

Lowenstein Sandler Diversity Committee Sponsored Breakfast Series
The firm instituted this series to increase opportunities for all attorneys to discuss diversity-related matters; for members and associates to mingle and share insights/experiences in an informal environment; and to foster connections among firm attorneys interested in diversity issues who may not otherwise work together.

New Jersey Law Firm Group
Lowenstein Sandler is a sponsor and member of this nonprofit organization designed to help minority students at Rutgers University School of Law and Seton Hall University School of Law to obtain employment with New Jersey’s larger law firms. We also participate in the group’s mentoring program, which pairs first-year minority students with practicing attorneys who help them define their career objectives.

Ongoing Efforts
Notwithstanding these accomplishments, we recognize that enhancing diversity requires an ongoing commitment. We have continued to expand on the initiatives included in our Diversity Program. In recent years, the competition for highly qualified diverse attorneys has increased, and we recognize that our firm must compete with the salaries and platforms offered by comparable firms in our marketplace. Lowenstein Sandler has met these challenges through initiatives that include the following:

• We have promoted a woman or minority attorney to partner in each of the last five years. One of the women worked part-time for more than three years prior to being promoted. She was considered in the ordinary course of our firm’s partnership track and continues to work part-time.
• We consistently recruit summer associate classes comprising significant percentages of minority and women law students.
• We have integrated women and minority partners into several key leadership positions in firm management, such as the Board of Directors, the Compensation Committee, the Admissions Committee, the Strategic Growth and Planning Committee, and Practice Group Leaders.
• We have facilitated part-time status for working mothers. Indeed, our firm’s decision to amend its by-laws to confirm that part-time attorneys are eligible for promotion to partner was reported as “aggressive and creative” by the New Jersey Law Journal. Currently, nearly 6.5% of the firm’s attorneys have reduced work schedules.
• We sponsor several community outreach efforts, including a mock trial program for inner city high school students, interview and resume skill building seminars for minority law students, and dinner programs for minority law students to discuss mentoring-related issues and the keys to building a successful practice in a large firm environment.

Diversity Infrastructure
Lowenstein Sandler’s Diversity Committee comprises members and associates, who as a Committee are charged with:

• Ensuring that the firm maintain its historic commitment to promoting diversity in the workplace;
• Evaluating the effectiveness of our existing diversity policies, recommending to senior management improvements in existing programs, and helping to develop new policies to further promote a diverse workplace; and
• Coordinating the firm’s participation in organizations and events devoted to advancing issues that are important to attorneys with diverse backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities, women, and gays and lesbians.

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