Kilpatrick Stockton has a 125-year history of leadership in inclusiveness—hiring and promoting diverse attorneys and staff and fostering an environment in which the best legal minds can thrive. It's one of the most important elements of our legacy, and it has contributed directly to our firm's success. Kilpatrick Stockton was one of the first large firms in the Southeast to have a female partner, and it led the major regional law firms in recruiting and hiring African-American attorneys.

Other examples from our past that have helped lay the foundation for a diverse and accepting practice include the following:

• In the 1930s, Kilpatrick Stockton was one of the first major law firms to hire a Jewish partner, a rarity for major southeastern law firms at the time.
• Kilpatrick Stockton was at the forefront of racial desegregation and enlightenment in the 1960s, helping Martin Luther King, Sr. when the IRS was unfairly targeting his church.
• Kilpatrick Stockton served as Pro Bono Counsel to Maynard Jackson's mayoral re-election campaign in 1989. Jackson was the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.
• In 1997, Kilpatrick Stockton established the James S. Dockery, Jr. Scholarship at Wake Forest Law School to support outstanding minority students.
• In 1999, Kilpatrick Stockton received Georgia's first Thomas L. Sager Award from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association for sustained commitment to improving the hiring, retention and promotion of ethnic minority attorneys.
• In 2000, a Kilpatrick Stockton senior partner was the principal author of the "Diversity" chapter for the Thomson/West treatise Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel, which has become a seminal work for the establishment of comprehensive diversity programs with law firms and corporate legal departments.
• In 2004, the Charlotte Chamber selected Kilpatrick Stockton to be honored in the Multicultural Community Involvement category during the Chamber's Diversity Best Practices Executive Forum.
• In addition to creating a diverse environment within the Firm, Kilpatrick Stockton has reached out to a wide-ranging community beyond the Firm's walls. With a nationally recognized commitment to pro bono activities, the Firm has received many awards because of its success in aiding those in need, regardless of age, gender, race or income. Kilpatrick Stockton understands that a community in which all people can receive equal access to the legal process is a community that benefits us all.