Cleary Gottlieb Honored With Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award

Cleary Gottlieb was honored with the Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award by the New York City Bar Association’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at its inaugural annual Power the Pipeline Conference.

Cleary partner Kyle Harris and community engagement specialist Kalia Onabanjo opened up the conference with a panel focused on the firm’s decades-long partnership with the Washington Irving Campus of NYC high schools. The program seeks to close the opportunity gap by equipping traditionally underrepresented students with the learning experiences and tools needed to excel as students in higher education, as professionals in the workplace, and as leaders in the community.

Washington Irving Campus (WIC) Program alumna Dayana Saint Vil also took part in the panel and shared how being in the program motivated her to pursue law. Dayana is a graduate of the J.D./M.I.A. in Law and International Affairs dual degree program at the City University of New York School of Law and the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York. She has been named a NYC Bar Association Civil Right to Counsel Task Force Research Fellow and a Black Law Student Association Fellow. Currently, Dayana is the Vice Chair of Diversity and Special Projects with the American Bar Association - International Law Section – Young Lawyers Interest Network. In this role, she leads projects focused on the section’s publications and mentoring and supporting foreign and U.S. lawyers.

Kalia later accepted the Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award on behalf of the firm, which was recognized for its longstanding commitment and unwavering dedication to promoting diversity and extending opportunities to underserved communities within the legal profession’s talent pipeline.

This conference was made possible largely due to the work of Tanya Martinez-Gallinucci, Executive Director of the Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging. Tanya, a former Cleary litigation attorney, spearheaded this conference as a call to action to other firms to champion educational pipelines and to bring urgency to the need for diversity in the legal profession. 

To learn more about the conference, click here.

To learn more about the WIC Program, click here.