In an effort to reach a diverse population of candidates, we participate in diversity job fairs, target certain publications and social networks, and partner with numerous bar associations.

Through our sponsorship of the McKusick Diversity Fellowship at the University of Maine School of Law, McKusick Fellows have an opportunity for a paid internship at Pierce Atwood.

We also believe that to recruit and retain new associates, we must demonstrate our commitment to diversity by providing diverse role models who can initiate and maintain rich, fulfilling mentorship relationships.

Our staff recruitment efforts also include participating in community organizations such as the Diversity Hiring Coalition of Maine and the Maine Catholic Charities Refugee Program.

Our Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee works with internal stakeholders responsible for recruitment and hiring, along with internal subject matter experts within our employment and HR departments, to continually review our recruiting/interviewing and hiring processes to determine any areas for improvement.

Pierce Atwood is pleased to be a leader in gender diversity. In 1945, we were the first major law firm in Maine to hire a female attorney, Ms. Sigrid Tompkins. In 1953, she became the first female partner at a Maine law firm. Over the years, women have led the firm at the highest levels as Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer. Today, women serve in a variety of leadership roles across the firm, as members of the Management Committee, Practice Group Leaders, and administrative department leaders.

For many years, we have led the way in helping lawyers and their families balance the demands of their professional and personal lives by offering flexible work schedules and generous paid parental leave policies for birth and adoptive parents.

We provide opportunities for our attorneys and staff to facilitate education and conversation around diversity related issues relevant in today’s society. For example:

• Our EDI Committee has facilitated anti-racism book and movie discussion groups, to provide an opportunity to join together in learning more about the complex issue of racism as we navigate this important time in our country. Our hope is that these groups will allow us to benefit from the insights of leading scholars, as well as our colleagues, and to build internal bonds that will help us tackle challenges relating to diversity, inclusion and equity with increased strength. In the initial phase, 35 participants gathered in small groups to discuss Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving; and/or White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.
• We hosted nationally prominent racial justice advocate DeRay Mckesson, host of the podcast “Pod Save the People,” at a firmwide lunch in 2020. DeRay’s talk covered how we, as members of the legal profession, can become more aware of the impact of our behaviors and communications on racial minorities and what we can do to improve racial equity and inclusion in our communities.
• At another firmwide lunch, guest speaker Wayne Maines, father of Nicole Maines, shared with us how he worked through his own prejudices and biases to become a strong advocate for his transgender daughter and transgender rights, as well as the impact of the legal system on his family’s story. The family’s story is chronicled in the New York Times bestseller, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt.
• Recently the EDI Committee sponsored a skills training for attorneys and administrative managers involved in the hiring process on understanding and combatting the effects of implicit bias in interviewing and hiring.
• We also hosted a renowned diversity expert to speak to all firm employees on implicit bias in our culture, workplace, and the media.

Pierce Atwood also supports diversity in the communities in which we live and work. For example:

• We are pleased to sponsor the McKusick Diversity Fellowship at the University of Maine School of Law. Named for Vincent McKusick, a former Pierce Atwood managing partner and Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, this fellowship provides tuition and other support to students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, with a goal of increasing the diversity of the student body at the law school and in Maine’s legal community.
• In 2020, we established the Ralph I. Lancaster, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund, in honor of our longtime partner, to help provide financial assistance to exceptional incoming University of Maine School of Law students with a demonstrated financial need.
• We are a founding sponsor, and continuing sponsor, of the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, with four women attorneys appointed to their Leader’s Network and one on the Board of Directors. The mission of OSWLI is to teach leadership skills, and provide mentoring, to high school girls to provide them with the confidence and abilities to be future business and community leaders. Pierce Atwood attorneys and staff have served and continue to serve as advisors to OSWLI participants.
• As part of the Boston Bar Association Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summer Fellowship Program, Pierce Atwood has sponsored internship placements at public interest law offices, such as the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
• We support the DEI efforts of NAIOP Massachusetts, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, through our contributions as a Silver Gavel Member.
• As president of the Tufts Lawyers Association, Pierce Atwood construction law partner Tom Dunn spearheaded a series of webinars discussing racial disparities in the legal profession.
• Pierce Atwood has been a sponsor of the South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston; Karishma Jiva Cartwright, an attorney in our Patent group, served as vice president of this organization in 2018 and 2019.
• In September 2018, Pierce Atwood’s Portland office hosted a CLE Ethics program "Professionalism, Conduct and the #MeToo Movement,” featuring Maine State Bar Association President Susan Driscoll and Executive Director Angela Weston discussing results of a survey sent to all Maine-licensed attorneys which explored the occurrence of harassment and discrimination among lawyers in the workplace.
• Through the DC Public School Partnership Program of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, we provide ongoing support to Anne Beers Elementary School in Washington, DC, including tutoring, mentoring, and other academic enrichment services.

• In July 2020, in response to the rising calls for structural change within our society following the killing of George Floyd, Pierce Atwood launched our Racial Justice Initiative, a three-pronged approach to promoting racial justice in our communities through targeted pro bono initiatives and transactional support.
• Each year, firm attorneys and paralegal staff are pleased to provide hundreds of hours of pro bono legal assistance in immigration and asylum cases referred by the Immigration Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). We have represented clients from Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Haiti, Liberia, Burundi, Rwanda, and other countries where war, political instability, and violence have created extraordinary hardships. 
• We serve as local counsel to GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) for Maine and played a central role in the successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.

Click here to learn more about the firm’s pro bono efforts.

Pierce Atwood has joined forces with  various Maine law firms, corporate partners, and University of Maine School of Law for this program that invites first-year law students from across the county to apply for a paid summer associate internship at one of the participating organizations in Portland, Maine. Click here for more information on this unique collaboration.