“Diversity among attorneys and staff enriches our firm culturally and professionally. Diversity of thought, experience, and background makes us more creative and innovative, which is the core strength of our client service. Moreover, we and our clients are engaged in business around the world, and our continued success depends upon reflecting the diversity of the communities that we serve.”

Mary S. Ranum
Chairman of the Board and Diversity Committee Chair
Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

 

Statement of Values

Diversity is a core value of Fredrikson & Byron. To serve our clients and to reflect our community, we will endeavor to hire and retain men and women of diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations.

Our Commitment to Diversity

We recognize that a statement alone will not help us achieve a more diverse workforce. Considered steps and actions directed at hiring and retaining lawyers of diverse backgrounds is imperative.

Fredrikson & Byron’s diversity initiative is led by a small committee composed of board members, attorneys, and recruiting professionals. The committee is responsible for identifying and recommending steps for the firm to take to more effectively recruit and retain attorneys of diverse backgrounds at the associate, senior attorney, and partner levels.

Feedback from our current attorneys of diverse backgrounds, as well as from those who have left the firm, is an important component in helping us learn more about their overall experiences at the firm, identify what obstacles to success they’ve encountered, and uncover opportunities for improvement. This feedback is extremely important to creating an atmosphere in which all Fredrikson & Byron attorneys feel they can succeed.

Pursuit of diversity as a core value enables our firm to be a home where professionals and staff who reflect the diversity of our community can achieve success and career fulfillment, individual by individual, which will enrich the professional and personal experience of everyone at Fredrikson & Byron.

We acknowledge both the moral and business imperatives for promoting diversity within our firm and community. Our clients inspire us to create diverse teams of individuals in order to provide innovative solutions to their legal needs.

Diversity Initiatives

We aspire to be a leader in both our profession and our community in reflecting diversity as a core value and are proud to highlight the following activities and accomplishments:

• The firm’s hiring efforts include activities designed to increase the diversity of both entry level and lateral level attorneys, including participation in minority job fairs (such as the Twin Cities Minority Recruitment Conference and the SE Minority Job Fair), targeted outreach to associations of minority and other law students and lawyers, and expanded recruiting to include schools with significant diversity in the classes. Additionally, the outreach efforts include establishing relationships with key faculty and/or administration staff to help in identification of candidates for more direct and personal outreach.
• Fredrikson & Byron and the Fredrikson & Byron Foundation jointly developed a Minority Scholarship Program in 1990. The Minority Scholarship Program provides educational opportunities for law students of diverse backgrounds with both financial assistance and work experience. Students who are awarded a scholarship through this program are also invited to become summer associates. A number of our scholarship recipients have joined us as associates.
• In 2005, The Fredrikson & Byron Foundation established the Fredrikson & Byron Scholarship Fund at the University of Minnesota Law School. The scholarship is designed to promote diversity at the law school consistent with the University’s diversity initiatives. The law school scholarship committee selects the recipients of the scholarship. Once the endowment is fully funded, the scholarship should cover tuition each year for the selected student.
• We are a participant of MSBA’s Minnesota Minority Clerkship Program, which matches selected, first year students of color from Minnesota law schools with legal employers.
• We continue to explore ways to recruit senior and partner level attorneys of diverse backgrounds, which may include hiring of recruiting firms with established track records in identifying and placing diverse senior level attorneys.
• We provide ongoing support to our attorneys through our mentoring program, skills training, practice development resources, and opportunities for leadership roles in the firm and the community.
• We foster an environment of inclusion where diversity is valued and persons of all backgrounds are respected and welcomed.
• In addition to chairing seven of the firm’s practice areas, women and attorneys of diverse backgrounds hold two leadership positions and are members of many of the firm’s committees.
• We provide diversity training to our attorneys and support staff.
• Fredrikson & Byron attorney John Stout is a co-founder of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA), a non-profit organization that provides assistance to businesses that are owned and managed by racial and ethnic minority residents of Minnesota. He is also a co-founder of the Milestone Growth Fund. Milestone Growth Fund is the only Minnesota venture capital fund focused on providing equity-type financing to minority-owned companies.
• Fredrikson & Byron is a founding member of Twin Cities Diversity in Practice, a collaborative consortium of local law firms and other organizations dedicated to advancing diversity in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota legal community.
• We are a sponsor of the Minnesota Legal Diversity web site, designed to promote the Minnesota legal community to prospective law students and attorneys of diverse backgrounds.
• We have worked closely with the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) to support the development of the Mercado Central, a unique collection of minority-owned businesses located on Lake Street in the Whittier neighborhood and have provided pro bono service to several of the businesspeople.
• We are a corporate sponsor of Women of Wind Energy’s (WoWE) Mentoring Program. WoWE is a group of individuals who support and encourage the participation and advancement of professional women in the wind energy industry.
• We are an annual sponsor of many events that promote diversity including the Twin Cities International Citizen Awards, the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA) Gala, The Business Journal’s Women in Business awards, the Top Women in Finance awards, and the Chicanos Latinos Unidos En Servicio (CLUES) Gala.
• We support individual attorneys involvement in diverse community and bar associations such as Minnesota Women Lawyers, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transexual Bar Association.
• The firm supports a women attorney-led initiative, Counsel for Women, focusing on women business owners and executives. The Counsel for Women sponsors a variety of women-focused programs in the business community. 
• Fredrikson & Byron’s Counsel for Women is a founding partner of the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) Minnesota, a not-for-profit organization established to work with women to expand and strengthen businesses in Minnesota. The WBDC offers a nationally-recognized certification for women business enterprises (WBEs). 
• The firm supports a variety of affinity groups including attorneys of color, working mothers and a LGBT group.