Chicago partner Avanti Bakane has been named one of five Advocates for Diversity by the Diversity Scholarship Foundation (DSF). Bakane will be presented with the award at DSF’s Unity Award Dinner, its premier annual event, to be held on November 29, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Gordon & Rees joins Bakane in support of DSF by sponsoring the Unity Award Dinner at the Bronze Level.
The Advocates for Diversity award recognizes members of the Chicago legal community for their tireless efforts in making significant contributions to the legal community and the community at large, including embracing diversity and the ideals diversity represents. Other awards also presented at the dinner included the Unity Award given to Northern District of Illinois Bankruptcy Court Judge Jacqueline P. Cox and Cook County Circuit Court Judge Moshe Jacobius.
The Diversity Scholarship Foundation (DSF) is a not-for-profit organization that provides scholarships to diverse and deserving law students. The DSF also provides free continuing legal education seminars (CLEs) on a wide range of topics.
"I am honored to serve as an Advocate for Diversity and look forward to our ongoing efforts to encourage and promote diversity in the law for generations to come," said Bakane. "Incredibly, this year, DSF will award twenty deserving law students with scholarships totaling over $50,000.”
Avanti Bakane is actively involved in national and local diversity issues. She currently serves as Central Regional Governor for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and President of Leading India’s Future Today’s (LIFT) Associate Board. Ms. Bakane is a past President of the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago, past Honorary Board Member for the Asian American Bar Association of Chicago (AABA), and volunteers with several non-profit organizations to provide opportunities for underprivileged youth and to end gender violence.
For more information on The Diversity Scholarship Foundation or to register for the awards dinner, please click here.
In 2017, Gordon & Rees ranked in the top 30 on The American Lawyer Diversity Scorecard and among the top 20 for diversity among partners. It also ranked among Law 360's Top 100 Firms for Minority Lawyers and among the Top 40 Firms for Women in Law on the National Law Journal's NLJ Women in Law Scorecard. Recently, Gordon & Rees also received 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for the third consecutive year in row.
Gordon & Rees is a national litigation and business transactions firm with more than 800 lawyers in 46 offices across the United States. Our lawyers provide full service representation to public and private companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to start-ups. Founded in 1974, Gordon & Rees is recognized among the fastest growing and largest law firms in the country and continues to climb the ranks of both The Am Law 200 and The National Law Journal.