Diversity: Public Recognition

Diversity

Public Recognition and Community Involvement

MTO has been publicly recognized for its commitment to diversity, as well as for the accomplishments of its women and minority attorneys. In March 2010, The American Lawyer magazine released its annual diversity scorecard, ranking MTO second place in diversity hiring and retention among more than 190 law firms nationwide. In 2010, for the third consecutive year, The American Lawyer Magazine named MTO to the top of its A-List, in part, for the firm’s success in recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse attorneys.

MTO is honored to have also received the following recent recognitions.

  • Vault’s Top 100 Law Firms in the U.S.
  • 2010 Thomas L. Sager Award, Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA)
  • 2009 Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women
  • Minority Law Journal’s 2009 Top Ten for Law Firm Diversity
  • 2009 Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity, Multicultural Law Magazine
  • Top 20 for Associate Satisfaction 2009, The American Lawyer

Recent individual recognitions of diverse MTO lawyers include:

  • Kristin Myles was appointed the first female special master in an original jurisdiction U.S. Supreme Court case. She was also named one of California’s Top 100 Women Litigators by the Daily Journal in 2009, 2008 and 2006. 
  • Charles Siegal has actively championed the rights of the disabled and was honored for his activities by the Los Angeles Commission on Disability. He is also a 2009 recipient of the Award of Merit for board service by the Legal Aid Association of California,  for his service on the Board of the Disability Rights Legal Center.
  • Katherine Forster was named one of California’s Top 100 Women Litigators by the Daily Journal in 2010 and 2009, and is Immediate Past President of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.
  • Andrea Jeffries was named one of California’s Top 100 Women Litigators by the Daily Journal in 2010.
  • Bart Williams, one of MTO’s former co-managing partners, was named among The American Lawyer’s Top 45 Lawyers Under Age 45, and was featured in Black Enterprise magazine as a premier U.S. African-American attorney, and along with MTO litigation partner Rohit Singla was lead trial counsel in DVD Copy Control Association Inc. v. RealNetworks Inc., named a California 2009 plaintiffs verdict with the most significant impact by the Daily Journal.
  • Fred Rowley, an Asian-American partner, is past President of the Federal Bar Association of Los Angeles.
  • Paul Watford, an African-American partner, is a member of the ABA’s Amicus Curiae Committee, and a member of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
  • Jerry Roth was responsible for drafting an amicus brief in the In re: Marriage Cases, which resulted in a ruling by the California Supreme Court invalidating a state law limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman.
  • An MTO team including Gregory Phillips, Jay Fujitani, David Dinielli, Michelle Friedland, Lika Miyake, and Mark Conrad were honored in 2009, by the ACLU and National Center for Lesbian Rights, for their work challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that sought to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Though the court upheld Proposition 8, it also unanimously ruled that the more than 18,000 marriages that took place between June 16 and November 4, 2008 continue to be fully valid and recognized by the state of California.
  • Yuval Miller was honored with the Father Cuchulain Moriarty Award from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area for his extraordinary pro bono asylum work. Most recently, Mr. Miller secured asylum for a dissident journalist who had been detained and tortured for nearly six years for authoring newspaper articles critical of his government's human rights abuses. Mr. Miller serves as co-chair of the San Francisco Bay Area Minority Bar Coalition, leading a coalition of over 30 minority bar associations throughout the greater Bay Area, and is also chair of the BASF Barristers Club International Practice Section.

MTO has also joined with other members of the legal community to promote diversity in the legal profession.  We are a signatory to diversity initiatives sponsored by both the Bar Association of San Francisco (Goals and Timetables for Minority Hiring & Advancement) and the Los Angeles County Bar Association (Statement of Diversity Goals and Principles). We are also a sustaining member of the Project for Attorney Retention, an initiative of UC Hastings College of the Law and the recently formed Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. Additionally, several of our partners were instrumental in organizing and sponsoring a Managing Partners Diversity Conference in Los Angeles, which resulted in a group of 18 major Los Angeles law firms that meet regularly to discuss diversity issues. The firm is a member of the California Minority Lawyers Association and of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and was a national sponsor of the MCCA's report on Creating Pathways to Diversity.

Spotlight

MTO Fellows
MTO Fellows Program: Innovative Diversity Outreach

Launched in 2007, the MTO Fellows Program offers full-time positions in the firm’s Los Angeles office to students of diverse backgrounds who have recently graduated from college and plan to attend law school. Fellows work closely with attorneys and paralegals, participate in a wide range of educational activities outside the firm, and receive a stipend to take an LSAT preparation course.

“The strength of the MTO Fellows Program lies in the independent nature of the fellows, who are free to use this opportunity to immerse themselves in areas of law about which they are most passionate.” - MTO Fellow Farida Ali.

“As someone who has faced and overcome many adversities in life, the MTO Fellows Program has reinforced in me the belief that with hard work and perseverance, the sky is the limit, regardless of who you are or where you come from.” - MTO Fellow Azure'De Wilkins.

“I became an MTO Fellow to gain a more holistic understanding of the law, the way it is practiced and of the people who practice it. My proudest moment has been testifying at arbitration and helping secure damages for our client.” MTO Fellow Justin Iwata.