Diversity: Retention

Retention, Advancement and Promotion

MTO’s leadership in diversity hiring and retention is also shown by comparison to the 2009 statistics from the National Association of Law Placement. The firm surpasses national averages for diversity recruiting and maintains figures similar to firms of its size in the Los Angeles area. The association reported that nationally (in law firms with 101 to 250 lawyers), women averaged 30 percent of total lawyers and minorities were 9 percent. Comparatively, in 2009, 33 percent of MTO’s attorneys were women and 25 percent were minorities.  Both attorneys who made partner in 2010 are women; one is also a minority and the other works on a part-time basis. The prior year, 67 percent of the attorneys who made partner were women or minorities.  To help retain and advance women and minorities, the firm offers both formal and informal mentoring and networks to all attorneys. The firm also has a flexible part time policy, provides backup child care, and is one of the first West Coast law firms to provide a state-of-the-art onsite child care center, which opened to MTO families in January 2010.

Spotlight

Diversity Workshop
MTO associate Misty Sanford
Success that Can be Measured!

Each Spring, MTO associate Misty Sanford spearheads one of the most popular and successful pipeline initiatives at our firm - The Law School Admissions Workshop.  MTO has partnered with For People of Color, Inc. to host an annual workshop devoted to empowering people of color who desire to enter the legal profession.  Our lawyers share their insights into the law school application process as well as their own experiences as law school students.  Past student attendees at FPOC workshops have continued on to attend some of the nation’s best law schools and have become associates at major law firms.