Diversity
Community Involvement and Partnerships

Dewey & LeBoeuf understands its responsibility to the community. We take great pride in partnering with organizations that target young people from diverse communities with the goal of providing them with necessary tools for success in both their educational and professional careers. Our firm supports and attends events sponsored by organizations dedicated to strengthening diversity in the legal profession, such as the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Lambda Legal, LeGal, Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), as well as bar association events.

Our firm is proud of our involvement and partnership with the following organizations:

Legal Outreach Program

The mission of Legal Outreach is to prepare urban youth from underserved communities in New York City to compete at high academic levels by using intensive legal and educational programs as tools for fostering vision, developing skills, enhancing confidence and facilitating the pursuit of higher education. Each summer, the firm provides students with the opportunity to interact with lawyers for a day through hands-on mock negotiation exercises. 

Development School For Youth (DSY)

The Development School For Youth (DSY) program provides approximately 500 high school students with an opportunity to intern at more than 60 business and legal institutions in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. During the summer, Dewey & LeBoeuf places DSY interns in various departments at the firm to promote high levels of professionalism and leadership.  Currently, the firm has four DSY alumni working at the firm on a full or part-time basis.

Prep for Prep Program

During the summer, the Prep for Prep program provides its college and high school alumni with the chance to intern with legal and corporate institutions with the goal of strengthening their professional skills while developing a greater understanding of the profession. This past summer, the firm had the privilege of hosting two Prep for Prep interns in its summer paralegal program.

High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice

Dewey & LeBoeuf has proudly served as the "mentor firm" for the High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice (formerly Martin Luther King, Jr. High School). The firm acts as a mentor firm in coaching and preparing the school's students for annual moot court and mock trial competitions sponsored by Fordham Law School and the New York State Bar Association, respectively. Students meet with attorneys at the firm several times each week to practice for the tournaments. In 2007, the mock trial team of the High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice advanced to the fourth round of the statewide tournament.

Some of our firm's attorneys have also formed mentor relationships with students of the High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice. They have taken students to observe New York court proceedings in order to familiarize them further with the legal system and served as individual mentors to students, providing support and insight on the path towards a legal career. 

Pro Bono Work Supporting Diversity

As part of our firm's commitment to invest in diverse communities, we encourage our lawyers to support diversity causes in pro bono cases. Our lawyers have achieved many significant victories and managed to set precedents that are helping abolish discrimination and prejudice.

The firm is known for its pro bono work with the following organizations:

Asian Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project
Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
Korean American Family Service Center
The Advancement Project
The Center for Pacific Asian Family
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF)
Sakhi for South Asian Women

In 2006, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund honored our firm with the "Pro Bono Publico Award" for its involvement in a potentially landmark federal lawsuit alleging that the rights of Latino day laborers were violated in Westchester County.