Page 43 - 2021 UHLC Annual Report

Latham employs over 3,000 lawyers across a global platform
Law Firm Scholarship Donor: spanning 14 countries. As a testament to the firm’s long-standing
commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Latham received
Mansfield Certification Plus status for the fourth consecutive year
Latham & Watkins Launches for achieving at least 30% representation among underrepresented
lawyers in key leadership roles and among senior lateral hires.
Scholarship Program with Fuel “Texas, in all its diversity, represents the future, and we are thrilled

the Future Initiative to support the UH Law students who will shape it,” said Abid R.
Qureshi, Global Chair of Latham’s Recruiting Committee. “We
want law students of every background to get to know Lathamand
Latham & Watkins, a leading global law firm, has committed to to learn about the work we do in transformative industries, from
making available multi-year scholarships and diversity student technology to renewable energy. We look forward to welcoming
leadership programming to UH Law Center students — a more and more UH Law students into Latham’s Texas offices over
significant investment over three years. “Gifts like this are truly the coming years.”
transformative and inspirational,” said UH Law Center Dean Latham’s scholarship gift is also part of the Law Center’s Fuel the
Leonard Baynes. “When a law firm commits to investing in law Future campaign. The campaign aims to advance the Center’s
students and potential future employees, it shows where their mission with an ambitious plan to empower social equity and
heart and dedication lies.” access to legal education through philanthropic support of the Law
Bill Finnegan, a Latham & Watkins partner and 1981 UH Law Center’s areas of greatest need – scholarships and the law fund.
Center alum, was instrumental in connecting the firm with his “By investing in students today,” Dean Baynes said. “We remove
alma mater. “The stats we heard about how hard it is to compete financial barriers to fuel the legal minds and leaders of tomorrow.
for the best students and how hard it is to retain the best students Scholarship support grows not only an individual’s prosperity,
are real,” said Finnegan. “Anything we can do to help let those but a robust and diverse legal community, and ultimately grows a
students attend UH and focus on their education without philanthropic community to continue to give back for generations
worrying about a second job or how are they are going to pay to come.” The initiative goal is to triple annual philanthropic
for this is really meaningful, so we're excited about that.” scholarship support and raise $10 million by 2025. Gifts from
Latham’s gift also includes external programming, with a firms like Latham can assist in making that goal a reality. Navigate
here to learn more about this initiative.
Latham & Watkins Student Diversity Leadership Forum event
that aims to connect students directly with the firm and help
students learn more about transactional law.
Latham’s commitment to UH Law Center comes out of its
mission to expand learning opportunities for law students early
in their careers, facilitating a more inclusive recruiting process.
As an example, the firm offers a number of complimentary
Virtual Experience Programs to simulate real – life legal
work, hosts a full complement of educational webinars and
partners with several non-profits to provide free legal education
to students to expose them to the world of Big Law.

"Anything we can do to help let those students
attend UH and focus on their education
without worrying about a second job or how
are they are going to pay for this is really
meaningful, so we're excited about that."

– Bill Finnegan, Latham Partner
The firm also recently expanded its long-running Pathways
Program, which helps students through law school while
relieving some of the financial pressure as they begin to practice.
Recently Latham significantly increased the number of 2L
diversity scholarships, and more than half of its 2022 summer
class identifies as racial/ethnic minorities.

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