As the ranks of our lawyers have grown steadily more diverse, the need to balance professional demands with personal responsibilities has become increasingly acute. Of particular concern is support for our lawyers who have, or are planning to have, children.
The Working Parents Affinity Group was created to address the issues these lawyers face through ongoing group dialogue, internal networking opportunities and outside events.
Issues addressed have included:
- Financial and estate planning for families
- Elder care
- Career development and advancement
- Child care
- Parental leave
- Flex time
- General parenting advice
Part-Time and Leave Policies
Open to all lawyers, the firm’s part-time and child care leave policies are both generous and flexible. Any lawyer can, for any reason, request a part-time schedule. All lawyers are able to take leave in connection with a birth, adoption or foster care placement — and can follow that leave with a reduced work schedule on a long-term basis. Many of our lawyers have taken advantage of these benefits and subsequently built long and fulfilling careers with us.
Training
The firm offers training sessions of interest to our working-parent lawyers. We also partner with outside organizations to create special programs, which have included:
- An estate planning panel, discussing wills, guardians, life insurance, trusts, custodian accounts, 529 plans and gift trusts
- An elder care program, covering issues such as the “sandwich generation,” choosing quality care for an aging relative and elder care alternatives in the community
Networking and Social Events
The firm hosts periodic internal events for our working-parent lawyers, aimed at fostering a sense of community through ongoing networking opportunities.
Work-Life Resources
The firm provides free off-site backup emergency child care to all employees, and has a devoted room for nursing mothers and other personal uses.
Initially formed to promote the professional development of its diverse membership, Attorneys of Color has become a strong force for outreach and pro bono work in a number of underserved constituencies.
Meeting every other month, the group is an internal resource for its members to address career growth issues through peer networking and interaction with senior partners of diverse backgrounds. With the understanding that cultural differences can affect both perceptions and realities in any workplace, the opportunity for young lawyers to consult with those who have dealt with such differences in the past has proved invaluable.
The affinity group organizes a variety of internal networking events, including quarterly dinner meetings for its members and floor receptions for the entire firm.
Members actively support minority law students in a number of ways, including:
- Serving as mentors, debate coaches and judges in the firm’s efforts on behalf of Legal Outreach Inc.’s College to Law School Pipeline Diversity Program, aimed at helping minority students prepare for law school
- Hiring a minority college graduate as a summer legal assistant prior to his or her first year of law school, under the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity program
- Sponsoring mock interview programs and resume review workshops
- Participating in job fairs such as Northeast BLSA Job Fair and Harvard’s Minority Job Fair
- Sponsoring minority law student association events
While other groups of its kind may buy a table at a fundraiser or otherwise support a cause financially, the Attorneys of Color group prefers direct engagement with its causes. Accordingly, its members perform a variety of pro bono activities in the wider community, including the Microenterprise program, an initiative started within the firm that promotes seed financing of minority-owned business startups.
The firm has an active LGBTQ Affinity Group and provides generous benefits to its employees without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Kramer Levin has dedicated thousands of hours to pro bono LGBTQ-related matters. The firm served as co-counsel with Lambda Legal in the New York State marriage equality cases and has filed amicus briefs in the Dale, Lawrence, Windsor and Perry cases as well as more recent marriage equality cases. In 2010, the firm was co-counsel with the ACLU in McMillen v. Itawamba County School District, a case in Mississippi brought on behalf of an openly lesbian student who was denied the right to attend her high school prom with her girlfriend as her date and wearing her attire of choice, a tuxedo. Earlier, the firm represented the lesbian survivor of a Sept. 11 victim in obtaining her fair share of the Victims’ Compensation Fund award.
The firm has received much recognition for its LGBTQ-related work:
- The firm has consistently earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index.
- In Vault’s 2018 Law Firm Rankings, the firm ranked within the top 20 for Diversity for LGBTQ and Best Law Firms to Work For.
- The firm received the 2009 Equality@Work award from the Empire State Pride Agenda.
Also of note, Litigation associate Jason Moff was selected as one of the Best LGBTQ Attorneys Under 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association in 2014. This list honors and recognizes legal professionals under the age of 40 who have distinguished themselves in their field and demonstrated a profound commitment to LGBTQ equality.
Litigation partner Jeffrey S. Trachtman was honored in June 2014 by the LGBT Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association for his pro bono service to the LGBT community.
Kramer Levin is committed to creating an inclusive culture and embracing a widely diverse workforce. We believe that retaining a diverse group of lawyers and other professionals strengthens our ability to attract talented individuals and enhances our ability to retain and serve our clients.
As a means of advancing our firm culture and celebrating Disability Pride Month 2022, the firm launched an affinity group for employees with disabilities. All Kramer Levin employees both attorneys and staff) who identify as having a disability (whether physical or mental, chronic or temporary) are encouraged to join. This affinity group allows employees with disabilities to connect and share with one another.
The firm is also a signatory to the ABA Pledge for Change: Disability Diversity in the Legal Profession. By signing onto the pledge, signatories demonstrate their commitment to making their workforces more diverse, specifically for lawyers with disabilities.
Newly formed in 2023, this group will explore and define what allyship means at Kramer Levin—across identities, hierarchical levels, practice groups and offices. The group aspires to reinforce the firm’s commitment to creating a truly inclusive environment for all employees, with an emphasis on ensuring a sense of belonging for attorneys coming from historically underrepresented backgrounds.