Morrison Foerster Honored with NAPABA Law Firm Diversity Award

Morrison Foerster has been selected by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) as the recipient of its annual Law Firm Diversity Award. NAPABA honors law firms that actively, affirmatively, consistently, and enthusiastically recruit, retain, and promote Asian Pacific American lawyers to equity partnership and firm leadership.

For more than 40 years, Morrison Foerster has remained committed to furthering diversity and inclusion in the communities in which we work and live and to fostering a firm culture that respects, embraces, and celebrates our differences as strengths. At our core, we believe having an inclusive environment strengthens the quality of the service we provide to both our clients and our communities. MoFo’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Affinity Network aims to further the firm’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by raising awareness around the unique experience of navigating the professional space as an AAPI attorney and by actively supporting the recruitment, engagement, retention, development, and promotion of our AAPI employees across the firm.

Morrison Foerster is proud of our AAPI lawyers and the contributions that they make to the firm and our communities. In 2022, under the MoFo Navigate umbrella, MoFo launched the AAPI Mentoring Program to support the unique mentoring needs of our AAPI attorneys. Additionally, MoFo lawyers have committed themselves to countless hours of Pro Bono work representing individuals and families facing discrimination and violence based on their AAPI heritage. In October 2022, MoFo became one of the first AmLaw 50 firms to ever elect a firm chair of Asian descent. In honor of this year’s AAPI Heritage Month, the Morrison & Foerster Foundation donated $20,000 to several nonprofit organizations serving the AAPI community.

“We are honored to be recognized by NAPABA for the impact our AAPI lawyers have made in striving for a more inclusive legal profession. MoFo’s AAPI Affinity Network is a key part of our success and this award spotlights the work its members do every day to further our broader diversity and inclusion strategy,” said Natalie Kernisant, Morrison Foerster’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion officer.

NAPABA is the largest Asian Pacific American membership organization, representing the interests of 60,000 attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students.

The firm will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the 2023 NAPABA Convention, which is taking place November 9–12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.