Snell & Wilmer Honored with Compete Magazine's 2015 Corporate Diversity Partner Award

PHOENIX - Nov. 18, 2015 - PRLog -- Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that the firm received the 2015 Corporate Diversity Partner Award at this year’s Compete Sports Diversity Awards ceremony held on November 10 at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles. Marek Bute, partner in Snell & Wilmer’s Las Vegas office, accepted the award on behalf of the firm from Compete Magazine CEO Eric Carlyle and Fox Sports Media Personality Brittany Held.

The event honored and celebrated individuals and organizations that help fulfill Compete Magazine’s mission of Uniting the world through sports. Compete Magazine was launched in 2007 and is the world’s first and only sports diversity magazine.

Among the criteria noted for Snell & Wilmer’s award selection were the following:
·         The firm’s commitment to diversity and inclusion
·         The firm’s 2015 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) of 90. CEI is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The firm’s score reflects its commitment to LGBT workplace equality, with respect to tangible policies, benefits and practices.
·         The firm’s role in which Nevada attorneys Kelly Dove and Marek Bute served as part of the legal team with Lambda Legal and O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, as pro bono local counsel for the Plaintiff couples in Nevada’s marriage equality case, Sevcik v. Sandoval, filed in April 2012. Upon appeal of a dismissal of the challenge in the United State District Court, in October 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately reversed and remanded the lower court’s dismissal of the case, declaring the state marriage ban unconstitutional and ordering entry of a permanent injunction to protect marriage equality in the State of Nevada.

“This is a coveted honor for the firm,” said Manuel Cairo, Snell & Wilmer attorney and committee chair of the firm’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. “It reflects not only the dedication and commitment we have to advance diversity within our firm but also in the course of our profession through our pro bono work such as in the recent Sevcik case, for example. On behalf of the firm, I want to say thank you to Compete for recognizing Snell & Wilmer. It’s a proud moment for the firm,” Cairo added.

Snell & Wilmer’s commitment to diversity and inclusion flows from a highly developed strategic framework that provides vision, focus and clarity with a long-term view towards not only advancing diversity and inclusion, but also making them sustainable, measurable and effective business and moral imperatives. The firm has long recognized the benefits of diversity and inclusion and will continue to uphold that tradition to foster its vision statement: One Community, Identity of Many.

About Snell & Wilmer
Founded in 1938, Snell & Wilmer is a full-service business law firm with more than 400 attorneys practicing in nine locations throughout the western United States and in Mexico, including Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles and Orange County, California; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Los Cabos, Mexico. The firm represents clients ranging from large, publicly traded corporations to small businesses, individuals and entrepreneurs. For more information, visit www.swlaw.com.