Nelson Mullins Diversity Initiatives

• Partner June Towery is president of the Korea Southeast United States Chamber of Commerce.
• Atlanta partner Sara Turnipseed is the recipient of the 2010 Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women & Minorities in the Profession Committee of the State Bar of Georgia.
  
• The Firm was awarded the 2009 Zenith Award by the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys for professional excellence and commitment to work within the community, particularly as it relates to diverse communities.
  
• The Atlanta Bar Association's Women in the Profession Section honored Atlanta partner Anita Wallace Thomas with its 2010 Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award. The award recognizes a woman whose contributions have assisted in promoting and empowering women in the profession.
  
• The State Bar of Georgia honored Ms. Thomas with the Thomas R. Burnside Jr. Excellence in Bar Leadership Award on June 18, 2010.
  
• Nelson Mullins has a unique alliance with the law firm of Kumar Pathak, LLC. Through the smaller, minority-owned law firm, growing South Asian clients receive the legal resources of a large firm in a cost-effective way. A majority of Kumar Pathak attorneys are of South Asian birth or ancestry.
• Former Secretary of Education under President Clinton, partner Richard Riley chairs the Riley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leadership’s annual Diversity Leadership Academy; from which several of the Firm’s partners have graduated.
• Attorneys in the Firm assist the Defense Research Institute in its diversity initiatives; including supporting its minority law student scholarship program.
• Partner Karen Crawford is a charter member, and past executive board member, of the ABA’s Women Rainmakers Committee;
• Partner Anita Thomas is past president and board member of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys; other attorneys in the Firm serve as historian, on the membership committee, and assist with the annual fundraiser. The Firm sponsors a lunch series, “How to Market Yourself”;
• Partner June Towery is the regional coordinator for both the International Association of Korean Lawyers and National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and is Immigration Law chair for NAPABA.  These organizations promote networking and fellowship among lawyers, judges, legal educators, and law students of Asian heritage.
• Partner Zoe Sanders is past president of the National Association of Women Lawyers; other Firm attorneys serve on the Supreme Court Justice Evaluation Committee, Executive Board, and Amicus Committee.
• Partner Clarence Davis served on the South Carolina Diversity Council, an organization that educates business and industry leaders on diversity in the workplace.
• The Firm sponsors the State Bar of Georgia’s Diversity Program, a CLE conference committed to increasing opportunities for minority attorneys in corporate and government practice;
• Partner Corky Harper is past president of the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association and Karen Crawford has served on its Board of Directors.
• The Firm annually sponsors the University of North Carolina School of Law’s Symposium on Women;
• Partner Steve Morrison serves on the boards of Allen University and Benedict College, both colleges founded by African Americans in South Carolina.  
• The Firm is a supporter of the National Black Law Students Association in South Carolina and sponsors its annual banquet.
• Numerous attorneys have served on committees and as officers of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.
• In 2006, the Firm received the Commitment to Equality Award from the Georgia State Bar, Women and Minorities in the Profession Committee, for the Firm’s commitment to equality in the workplace.
• The Firm sponsored the “Forum on Expanding Opportunities for Minorities and Women” at the American Bar Association’s Section on Dispute Resolution’s 8^th Annual meeting in April 2006.
• Partner Frank Knowlton is the former president of the Richland County South Carolina Bar Association and has spearheaded a successful initiative to recruit minority attorneys to the association and to serve as committee chairs.
• The Firm has sponsored Women's Networking Events since 2007 which are attended by numerous women attorneys and clients.

• Representation of primarily African American children in a suit against South Carolina School Districts denying those children educational opportunities; winning a favorable verdict.
• Substantial and consistent participation in Legal Aid volunteer lawyer programs in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.  In North Carolina, the Firm is sponsoring a two-year fellowship for an attorney working in the Durham office of Advocates for Children.
• Partner Richard Riley (former U.S. Secretary of Education) chaired a consortium of national education leaders on methods to stimulate policy changes to enhance diversity and achievement in our nation’s schools.  A report “With All Deliberate Speed” was issued in November 2005, which offers recommendations to address these issues in American education.
• Wills for Heroes program, providing free wills for police and firefighters in South Carolina and Georgia.
• Team Child Early Intervention Program in Georgia through which lawyers advocate for developmentally delayed infants and children in foster care.
• Financial and other support of the ABA’s Fund for Justice and Education, which provides funding to 200 programs for legal assistance to protect children, the elderly, disabled and poor.
• Partner Melinda Moseley is vice chair of the Atlanta Commission on Women, which promotes programs affecting the quality of life and status of women and girls in Atlanta, including its annual “Women Doing Business” seminar for women and minority-owned business in the City of Atlanta.
• Numerous attorneys in the Firm’s Atlanta office serve on programs and fundraising committees for the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, which supports numerous programs for women and girls in the State of Georgia.
• Partner Michelle Johnson serves on the Board of Directors for Partnership Against Domestic Violence; other Firm members assist with employment and ERISA matters.  The Firm has been a sponsor for many years of this organization's annual fundraiser, which assists women and children to live safe, productive and violence-free lives. 
• Partner Stuart Andrews was former executive director and chair, and now serves as a board member, of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, which supports the interests of low income citizens before the General Assembly and state agencies.