The scholarship will provide $10,000 toward law school tuition to a first-year student of color for his or her second year of law school. The scholarship also provides the recipient with a summer position with the firm between his or her first and second years of law school. The chair of the firm’s diversity committee, Jennifer Rubin, will work closely with the student to develop a program that exposes the recipient to a variety of different practice areas, as well as involving him or her in the firm’s pro bono work.
The scholarship, which will be offered to students at a number of top law schools, is open to first-year law students of color who have demonstrated excellence in their studies, are community minded and have demonstrated a commitment to diversity. First-year law school students will be able to apply for the scholarship in the fall of 2010. The scholarship recipient will be announced in the spring of 2011.
“This scholarship is a fitting tribute to Herman Mintz, who along with his two partners, Ben Levin and Haskell Cohn, created a firm with opportunities for lawyers, regardless of their status,” said Robert I. Bodian, Managing Member of Mintz Levin. “We hope that in establishing this scholarship, it will enable the firm to forge strong and lasting relationships with law school students of color, and build on the many other initiatives we have to recruit and retain attorneys of color.”
This year, the Vault ranked Mintz Levin among the top 20 U.S. firms for its diversity efforts. The firm also received a rating of 100% for the third consecutive year from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the largest GLBT organization in the country.