Andrews Kurth Achieves A+ on Diversity Progress Report

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Hispanic Bar Association of Austin and the Austin Black Lawyers Association announced that Andrews Kurth has achieved an A+ consecutively for the past three years on a report card which grades the hiring of minority attorneys. “Andrews Kurth has fostered a culture of excellence based on a highly talented pool of increasingly diverse attorneys,” said Lino Mendiola, the firm’s hiring partner for the Austin office. “Like many of our clients, we think diversity is both right and good for business.”

For the fifth straight year, the 25 largest firms in Austin were asked to participate in the HBAA and ABLA diversity report card survey. Andrews Kurth is the only firm to receive an A+ for 2004. Prior to 2002, the firm was not large enough to participate in the survey.

“Not only is diversity important from a social standpoint,” said Vanessa Gonzales, President of the HBAA, “in 21st century Texas, it is a business imperative. With minorities constituting half of the population, Texas businesses including law firms in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin must diversify in order to remain viable and competitive in the future.”

Gonzales explained that law firms were given A’s where 14 percent or more of the attorneys are minorities because the State Bar of Texas reported that 14 percent of the 66,358 attorneys in Texas, as of Dec. 31, 2003, are minorities. Andrews Kurth’s Austin office receives an A+ rating as a result of 15.6 percent of the attorneys being minority.

Andrews Kurth LLP, founded in 1902, has more than 400 lawyers and eight offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, The Woodlands and Washington, DC. The firm has an international client base and has experience in all major industries and areas of business law and litigation.