O’Melveny Receives Bank of America’s Diversity & Inclusion Award for Second Time
November 5, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK—November 5, 2021—Bank of America’s Legal Department and its Diversity and Inclusion Business Council (DIBC) have honored O’Melveny with their 2021 Law Firm Diversity & Inclusion Award. This marks the second time that Bank of America has selected O’Melveny for this distinction, which recognizes the two companies’ shared commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Bank of America evaluated more than 130 firms using multiple criteria, including diverse staffing on its matters, efforts to recruit, retain, mentor, platform, and promote diverse attorneys, and the firms’ community outreach.
“This is an enormous honor and we could not be prouder,” said Pamela A. Miller, Co-Chair of O’Melveny’s Financial Services Practice and Co-Relationship Partner for O’Melveny’s Bank of America team. “Receiving this award for the second time in five years speaks to the many ways the firm has made diversity and inclusion a top priority. We are proud of our progress and grateful to Bank of America for its encouragement as we strive to keep doing better.”
In honoring O’Melveny, Bank of America highlighted the firm’s improvements across a range of metrics, including an increase in the number of attorneys who are women, people of color or LGBTQ+ working on its matters.
Bank of America also lauded O’Melveny’s progress across the firm for hiring and promoting diverse talent, noting:
• 50 percent of the firm’s four Department Chairs are lawyers of color
• 50 percent of its Policy Committee—the firm’s board—are diverse
• One-third of its lateral partner hires over the past six years have been diverse
• At least 50 percent of its organic promotions in each of the past six years have been diverse
Miller credits Bank of America with spurring O’Melveny on. “Because of the length and strength of our relationship, Bank of America has been a powerful change agent when it comes to diversity in the profession, consistently challenging us and other firms to do more,” she said.
“We deeply appreciate this recognition and our longstanding partnership with Bank of America,” added O’Melveny Chair Bradley J. Butwin, who is also Co-Relationship Partner for the Bank of America team. “We admire Bank of America’s laser focus in this area and are committed to making further progress ourselves. Improving our diversity, equity, and inclusion is the firm’s highest priority. We recognize that we have a lot more work to do and we are certainly not taking any victory laps. Our goal is transformational change.”
About O’Melveny
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Contact:
Christopher Rieck
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
+1 212 326 2218
crieck@omm.com
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