On January 31, the Texas State Board of Education will honor Haynes Boone with an Employers for Education Excellence Award for its pipeline initiatives and firm policies to help working parents. The firm is one of three employers in Texas to receive the gold level award.
The firm will be recognized at the state board’s general meeting at the William B. Travis Building in Austin, Texas. Officials will read a resolution in the firm’s honor during the event.
The board will recognize the firm for several programs, including its pipeline initiatives and Working Parents committee.
Through the pipeline initiatives, the firm works to expose diverse students, from middle school through university, to the legal field in the interest of developing a talented legal workforce that represents an array of backgrounds and perspectives. Haynes Boone partners with several local schools and organizations to provide programs and mentorship to students.
The firm serves as an industry partner of L.G. Pinkston P-Tech Collegiate Academy, an innovative program that gives students a chance to study business management. Firm lawyers also participate in summer workshops, school visits, and mentoring sessions and host on-site events such as an annual “mocktail” reception to help Pinkston students hone interviewing and networking skills they will need in the business world.
Haynes Boone Associate Brent Beckert helps lead the efforts as co-chair of the firm’s Pipeline Subcommittee.
“We are honored and humbled by the State Board of Education’s recognition of Haynes Boone and our firm-wide pipeline program,” Beckert said. “Our attorneys and staff believe it is critically important to extend a hand to students who are historically underrepresented in law firms and help ‘demystify’ the practice of law. Our firm is only as strong as the communities in which we live, and we are privileged to do our small part in making the legal profession a more diverse and inclusive place.”
The firm also was recognized for its efforts to improve the recruitment, retention, and promotion of working parents while identifying and advocating for policies and programs to maintain the firm’s family-friendly culture. The Working Parents committee helps develop policies, resources, and programs needed to support the unique challenges of working parents.
“We appreciate the state’s recognition of our initiatives and our lawyers’ efforts to make these programs impactful,” said Haynes Boone Director of Diversity and Inclusion Jennifer Reddien. “We are always looking for ways to help our lawyers and the future generations of lawyers succeed.”
Reddien leads the Attorney Diversity and Inclusion Committee (ADIC), which brings together lawyers, firm management and administrative team members to develop diversity and equality-related policies and programs, including the Pipeline Initiatives and Working Parents committees.