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DALLAS, Jan. 5, 2021 – BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration firm, is pleased to announce the promotions of Josiah Curtis and Maria DeLapp to the partnership.
“Practicing corporate immigration during these unprecedented years has required passion, creativity, and fortitude, qualities both Josiah and Maria exhibit in abundance,” said Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “They are committed to achieving results for our clients and our firm while serving as strong leaders and mentors for BAL team members.”
Josiah practices in BAL’s Boston office, where he assists clients of all sizes find creative solutions and strategies for their immigration programs. He was recognized in this year’s prestigious Chambers USA 2021 guide, where a client said of Josiah and his Boston colleagues, “I’m blown away by their expert knowledge. They are a walking Wikipedia of immigration knowledge.”
“From my first day at BAL, I’ve appreciated how unique this firm is—from the inclusive culture to the high-tech tools at our fingertips,” Josiah said. “BAL has enabled me to provide a level of client service that exceeds expectations and makes a real difference to individuals in this uncertain environment. I’m honored to take this step into leadership as BAL transforms the practice of immigration law while positively impacting lives.”
Maria leads operations in the firm’s Chicago office and represents clients in such diverse industries as IT, manufacturing, agriculture, scientific, engineering and financial services, automotive suppliers, and professional football, baseball, and rugby clubs. She has extensive experience helping clients manage immigration due diligence during all stages of mergers and acquisitions, and brings a unique perspective to her work, informed by her own immigration experience.
“The immigration journey is very personal to me because I immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager when my father obtained work here as a scientist,” Maria said. “I had an interesting start at BAL—launching a new office in a new market in the midst of a global pandemic. We built a great team and BAL continues to attract top talent in the industry. I’m honored to help lead a firm with a collaborative workplace culture that focuses on personalized service and a people-centered approach to immigration.”
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-290-9158
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm and the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2020 and 2021), and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product, the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services, and Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com
Media Contact: Emily Albrecht Senior Director — Marketing & Communications ealbrecht@bal.com 469-559-0174
DALLAS, Dec, 9, 2021 – Tech-forward immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP’s Chief Information & Technology Officer Vince DiMascio has published groundbreaking research that will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM), this week in Auckland, New Zealand. DiMascio and his co-authors built an innovative tool that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate and improve a mundane but critical step in the immigration process.
The tool uses natural language processing to “read” a job description and determine the standard occupational classification (SOC) code that best matches the job description on employment-based immigration petitions. The tool reduces turnaround time and ensures consistency in the selection of codes, especially across volumes of petitions where more than one code fits the description.
“This research sets BAL apart in an area of AI and legal tech that no one has explored, and could revolutionize the immigration application process,” said DiMascio. “We are able to train the tool to learn new job terminology and map job descriptions to SOC codes, with the aim of improving accuracy, efficiency, quality of work and client experience.”
As a trailblazer in the legal technology space, BAL continues to push the envelope on innovations that improve the immigration process. The U.S. Labor Department categorizes jobs into 867 occupational categories, each with a unique SOC code. Searching and selecting the code can be a tedious process and any problems in code selection can lead to delays or denials in immigration processing.
In this extremely competitive labor market, compounded by immigration backlogs and ongoing travel restrictions, employers depend on accurate and efficient immigration filings to fill critical job openings. DiMascio’s technology improves the process by training predictive models to determine the best-fitting SOC code based on the employee’s job description, benefiting both foreign national employees and their employers.
The published research is DiMascio’s latest achievement, following award-winning enhancements to BAL’s proprietary case management system, Cobalt®, and the use of AI to improve data migration during client onboarding. DiMascio previously co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on combining text and image readers to categorize RFEs and automating response templates. This impressive suite of technology gives BAL’s legal teams “extra hands” to respond to unpredictable surges in immigration filings caused by rapid policy changes, and enable our clients’ employees to take advantage of every opportunity to pursue their dreams.
“BAL is leading the industry in presenting peer-reviewed papers at world-class conferences like IEEE,” said BAL Partner Edward Rios, who heads the firm’s Innovation & Strategy Group. “BAL’s tech innovations are more than just academic—they are ultimately about serving people. Combining our technical and legal expertise, we design innovative solutions that create a smoother immigration experience for clients around the world. Our relentless pursuit of next-generation technologies also makes us an employer of choice for elite immigration professionals who want to lead in the industry.”
About BAL Established in 1980, BAL powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. BAL, with 13 offices across the United States and global coverage in more than 185 countries around the world, operates as a single entity through its oneBAL culture — a uniquely holistic approach, intentionally structured as one team, one brand, one P&L, one standard of excellence and one unifying technology. This united approach enables the firm to deliver the highest level of knowledge, insights and resources from across the entire organization.
At BAL, we pursue the exceptional. To learn more visit bal.com.
Dallas, Nov. 12, 2021 – Eight BAL attorneys are named to the elite Lawdragon® ranking of corporate employment lawyers, leading all other corporate immigration firms.
In the newly released 2022 Lawdragon rankings, which recognize only 500 of the nation’s top employment attorneys, BAL is the most cited firm for immigration, representing 12% of the 65 ranked attorneys in corporate immigration. The BAL Partners singled out by Lawdragon are: David Berry, Rob Caballero, Jeremy Fudge, Frieda Garcia, Kortney Gibson, Lynden Melmed, and Carla Tarazi. Additionally, Jeff Appleman, emeritus, is inducted into the Immigration Hall of Fame.
During the unprecedented immigration conditions of recent years, BAL has achieved extraordinary victories for clients stuck all over the world, mobilizing clients’ employees despite travel bans and visa delays, and helping some of the largest companies in the world navigate sudden work-from-home compliance issues for thousands of employees.
“Staying at the top of our game during these challenging times has required our entire team to show unprecedented effort,” says BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “I’m proud of the eight attorneys Lawdragon recognized and the 1,200 BAL employees who enable us to lead the corporate immigration field and deliver exceptional service to our clients.”
At a time when immigration challenges loomed large, on top of concerns over health, well-being and social justice, BAL’s nontraditional law firm culture has attracted the best and brightest legal talent.
“We continue to attract top talent in record numbers, despite an extraordinarily challenging job market, because we are the place to be in the immigration field,” says BAL’s Chief Operating Officer Leslie Rohrbacker. BAL leads the entire legal industry in workplace diversity, ranking as the #1 Most Diverse Law Firm in America for two years running by The American Lawyer, #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot, and the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal for the third year in a row. The firm leads the industry in both legal tech and client service, releasing a host of groundbreaking technology innovations and winning Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021.
“It has been remarkable to help lead our ever-growing teams through the immigration twists and turns of the past year,” says Partner Frieda Garcia. “While we all hope for more seamless global mobility in 2022, the pandemic forced our teams to dig deep to utilize BAL’s vast reservoirs of legal knowledge, creativity, and government insight to deliver results that other firms thought impossible. As always, these challenges brought out the best in us.”
About BAL
BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2020 and 2021), and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product, the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services, and Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com
Dallas, Nov. 4, 2021 – Industry-leading immigration law firm BAL has once again been named a top-ranking law firm in the 2022 “Best Law Firms” rankings by the prestigious U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers® annual ranking of the best law firms in the country.
BAL was honored with the highest “Tier 1” category in the 2022 national rankings in immigration law and in regional office rankings for Houston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The firm also received regional rankings for its Boston and Dallas offices.
“We’re excited to receive this recognition for providing exceptional service to clients in challenging immigration conditions,” said BAL Partner Frieda Garcia. “To consistently rank at the top of the field by U.S. News- Best Lawyers® is a huge honor.”
BAL continues to innovate the practice of immigration law, leading the industry in technological advances—like its proprietary case-management system, Cobalt®, and its immigration knowledge portal Advisor—that allow a seamless client experience, the ability to scale to clients’ needs and an overall superior immigration journey for their employees.
The tech-forward firm is dedicated to personalized, on-the-ground client service and has launched a nationwide expansion—opening or expanding offices in Austin, Chicago, Denver and Santa Clara, Calif. in the past two years and initiating a hiring spree that nabbed well-connected attorneys such as AILA luminary Jeff Joseph and former State Department attorney Tiffany Derentz.
“As we continue to build the best team in the business, push the envelope with technology and deliver flawless service to clients, we’re proud to blaze the path forward for immigration law,” said Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “Even with great rankings like this, we’re not satisfied. We’ll keep amplifying our efforts to improve and grow, so we can help more people achieve their dreams.”
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL)
Dallas, Sept. 14, 2021 – Game-changing immigration firm Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) has been honored by the Law360 Glass Ceiling Report once again for its industry-leading strides in gender equity. BAL ranked second in its size category for percentage of female attorneys and partners, and bested all other firms in its category for the percentage of female nonequity partners.
Law 360 praised BAL for “leading its peers by posting more than a 3-to-1 ratio of women to men at the nonequity partner level” and scoring a robust 11.2 points above the industry benchmark, just 0.3 points shy of the highest score. BAL remains among an elite class of only four firms in its category to meet or beat the benchmarks. Today, women make up 65% of BAL’s associates, 79% of nonequity partners, and 50% of equity partners. The ranking reinforces BAL’s leadership across the legal industry on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Every day, we help clients from all over the world pursue better opportunities,” said BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “And we want no less for our employees—that means recruiting a diverse and talented staff and showing them they are valued as we do exceptional work together. We’re proud of this ranking, but we don’t rest on our laurels. We’re continuing to learn and grow from one another so we can make positive change in our firm and the world.”
Besides hiring many women, promoting them to positions of leadership and offering flexible work policies that enable employees to balance family responsibilities, BAL has become a thought leader in gender and diversity. Three female BAL leaders—Partners Frieda Garcia and Kortney Gibson and Senior HR Director Julie Dalton—spoke on “Women, Diversity & Inclusion: Tools to Achieve a Collaborative Workplace Culture” at the recent Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference in Las Vegas.
“During this past year and a half, women have shouldered enormous stress and many challenges. Even in these difficult circumstances, BAL accomplished incredible things for clients all over the world,” said Garcia. “The resilience and determination of the women in our firm inspires me each day. Without the unified effort that defines our oneBAL culture, we couldn’t accomplish half as much—our diverse and inclusive environment makes us a stronger firm.”
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2020 and 2021), and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product, the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services, and Legalweek’s Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of 2021. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal.
See website for details: https://www.bal.com.
DALLAS, Aug. 19, 2021 – Seventeen BAL attorneys have been recognized as Best Lawyers in America and five BAL attorneys have been named Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in immigration law by Best Lawyers®. Their names will appear in the 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, the only purely peer-review guide to the legal profession.
The following recognized BAL attorneys practice all aspects of corporate immigration:
These five up-and-coming BAL attorneys are recognized as Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in immigration law for 2022:
See BAL’s profile in Best Lawyers here.
BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021) and the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal for three years in a row (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product and the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com/.
DALLAS, Aug. 17, 2021 – Pioneering immigration firm Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) has once again earned the #1 spot on Law360’s 2021 Diversity Snapshot, continuing to lead the legal industry on diversity and inclusion.
For the second year in a row, BAL tops all other law firms of its size, scoring a “robust” 22.9 points above the benchmark, and more than 10 points ahead of the second-place firm, according to the influential annual ranking of law firm diversity. BAL’s diversity is represented at every level, with minorities making up 28.6% of Equity Partners, 23.1% of Nonequity Partners, and 54.5% of Associates.
“As a firm, we deliberately bring people of diverse walks of life together and empower them to contribute at all levels of the organization,” said Frieda Garcia, a BAL Partner. “Our oneBAL culture is the embodiment of inclusion: a place where every individual feels welcome and valued for their unique background, skills and ideas.”
BAL has become a thought leader on diversity, an area where many law firms continue to lag behind. Garcia will be speaking about “Women, Diversity & Inclusion: Tools to Achieve a Collaborative Workplace Culture” with BAL Partner Kortney Gibson and Senior Director of Human Resources Julie Dalton at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference in Las Vegas next month.
Last year, BAL launched a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program, inviting employees from every department to actively participate in firm-wide focus groups and brainstorm initiatives to further advance diversity within the firm and in the community. The focus groups resulted in more than 40 new employee-led DE&I initiatives and 12 “affinity” groups created by employees.
“Diversity, inclusion and empowerment are not just abstract values for us – we put them into practice in every aspect of our work and daily interactions with our clients and colleagues,” said BAL Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “Even with our #1 rankings, we have continued to reflect on how we can improve and take concrete steps to create real change that makes a positive difference in people’s lives.”
BAL holds the #1 spot on The American Lawyer’s 2021 and 2020 Diversity Scorecard, and ranks as the #1 Law Firm for Women by the National Law Journal three years running (2019, 2020 and 2021) and #1 Best Law Firm for Female Attorneys on Law360’s 2020 Glass Ceiling Report.
About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) BAL, the world’s leading corporate immigration law firm, is the Best Lawyers® “Law Firm of the Year” in U.S. Immigration Law for 2019, ranks #1 on the Diversity Scorecard by The American Lawyer (2020 and 2021) and the #1 Law Firm for Women according to the National Law Journal (2019, 2020 and 2021). BAL’s Cobalt® digital immigration services platform won the 2020 CODiE Award for Best Legal Tech Product and the prestigious CIO100 award for Innovative Use of Intelligent Automation in Immigration Services. BAL is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, BAL has consistently provided immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world’s first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers®, Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. See website for details: https://www.bal.com.
Tiffany Derentz served in the Visa Office and as Senior Advisor in the Office of the Legal Advisor
DALLAS (June 1, 2021) –“Immigration is central to recruiting top talent, and I am excited to work with businesses and assist them in navigating their global mobility needs,” said Derentz. “BAL is such a dynamic, forward-thinking firm, with genuine passion for what they do for clients. I’m eager to work with BAL’s talented and dedicated legal teams.”
Derentz joins BAL’s Government Strategies team, headed by Partner Lynden Melmed, who previously served as Chief Counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Government Strategies team helps clients navigate and shape policy developments in D.C., maintaining direct relationships with the White House and leaders on both sides of the aisle. In May, BAL submitted extensive and detailed comments to USCIS, recommending concrete actions to reduce barriers and restore faith in the legal immigration system.
“Companies are facing unprecedented mobility challenges in the ongoing pandemic, including heavily backlogged visa services at U.S. Consulates and evolving travel ban restrictions,” said Melmed. “Tiffany’s experience with the State Department – both at headquarters and on the ground at U.S. Consulates – will provide our clients with unique insights into changing visa policies and processes.”
Derentz served at the State Department for over eight years, working as an Advisor and Supervisory Attorney in the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Visa Office, then as an attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser, including as a Senior Advisor to the department’s Chief Legal Advisor for immigration affairs. The Bureau of Consular Affairs formulates and implements policies related to immigration and consular services and ensures that U.S. consulates around the world provide responsive and efficient visa services and other consular services.
“We’re excited to further bolster our Government Strategies team with Tiffany’s expertise,” said Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge. “We are already the nation’s preeminent firm for complex and sensitive immigration and compliance matters, advocating on behalf of business interests and influencing immigration policy in Washington. With this expansion of our team, we continue to attract the brightest minds in the industry to the benefit of our clients.”
DALLAS, July 14, 2021 – Tech-forward immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden (BAL) won the Most Innovative Law Firm Operations Team of the Year Award, announced by Legalweek at the Leaders in Tech Law Awards ceremony Tuesday. The award recognizes BAL’s proprietary case management system, Cobalt®, for its speed and efficiency in serving clients worldwide.
Legalweek honored firms that developed innovative tech solutions during a year of “unprecedented uncertainty and needed flexibility.” With vision and foresight, BAL’s Operations began enhancements on Cobalt in mid-2019 and finished the project shortly after COVID lockdowns began. Cobalt’s lightning-fast search engine and document upload features surpassed all expectations in timing and effectiveness.
“I’m honored to work and innovate with an incredible team in a unique environment,” said Chanille Juneau, Head of Products. “At BAL we have forward-thinking tech people who work side-by-side with our legal teams, figuring out how to apply technology to the legal practice in ways that are most effective and beneficial to clients.”
The team optimized Cobalt to handle the growing number of users as BAL expanded its caseload. Juneau and her team improved search accuracy and enabled greater speed and document upload capability, so that users would have the same experience regardless of whether one person or 1,000 people were simultaneously searching or uploading a document.
The new system launched August 2020, six weeks before the government unexpectedly opened a filing window that led to the biggest wave of immigrant green-card filings in 15 years. With enhancements to Cobalt’s performance and scalability, BAL was able to successfully file more than 10,000 cases for clients in a four-week filing period, with Cobalt handling a record number of users, searches and document uploads, while experiencing zero down time or outages.
“This project was a significant win for our firm and our clients. Cobalt is already an industry-leading legal tech product, and our teams elevated its performance level and utility during a critical time,” said Chief Information & Technology Officer Vince DiMascio.
“During the massive surge in usage, Cobalt operated without a single misstep, and we filed all client applications without interruption,” added Partner Edward Rios, Head of Innovation. “Even during stressful caseload surges, our clients can sleep at night knowing that nothing will be dropped because we have the best people and tools in the industry.”
Rios and DiMascio also presented at Legalweek’s Driving Legal Forward virtual event on Tuesday, leading a speaker session on “Change Management, Successful Law Firm Transformation and How to Implement AI, RPA and Emerging Technologies Into Your Law Firm.”
In addition to representing BAL’s leadership in innovative legal operations, this award demonstrates the positive impact BAL is making in people’s lives. BAL’s sophisticated legal teams backed by groundbreaking tech enable the firm to help countless people through their immigrant journeys to pursue their American dreams.
DALLAS, June 24, 2021 – The groundbreaking immigration law firm BAL is again ranked #1 for female attorney representation according to the National Law Journal’s 2021 Women in Law Scorecard.
For the third year in a row, BAL tops the Scorecard, which ranks firms by adding their percentage of female attorneys and their percentage of female partners. At BAL, women make up 62% of the attorneys, nearly two-thirds (65%) of the firm’s partners, and 42% of its owners.
“It’s an honor to remain the industry leader in this category. Women not only make up the majority of attorneys at BAL—they hold decision-making positions across the firm,” says Managing Partner Jeremy Fudge, noting that women make up 73% of the firm’s employees and 50% of its C-suite leaders. “We hire the best legal talent in the industry, and we have been forward-thinking in creating policies and instilling a culture that make this a great place to work for women at every stage of their careers.”
BAL has intentionally built a culture that values individuality while rewarding teamwork throughout its 40-year history. Though the firm has tripled its size since 2014 and grown 50% since 2018, it has maintained an inclusive culture, known as “oneBAL,” that elevates female voices and enables collaborative problem-solving without the divisiveness that plagues many large law firms. The firm’s leadership has adopted policies such as flexible schedules, remote work, expanded mental health support and unlimited vacation time that encourage work/life balance and resonate especially for female attorneys who are disproportionately impacted by parenting and caregiving responsibilities. In 2020, BAL formally established a DE&I Action and Advisory Board that launched firmwide focus groups seeking employee input and led to more than 40 employee-inspired initiatives that further promote diversity within the firm.
“I knew BAL was different from other law firms when I joined as an associate,” says Senior Partner Frieda Garcia. “I’ve seen the firm flourish and change over the past two decades, but one thing has remained constant—our culture that values every employee’s unique talents, ideas and contributions.” Garcia will be speaking at the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) annual conference in September with BAL Partner Kortney Gibson and Sr. Director of HR, Julie Dalton, about “Women, Diversity and Inclusion” and how organizations can achieve a collaborative workplace culture.
BAL has dominated industry gender and diversity rankings for the past several years, earning the top spot in multiple publications, including The American Lawyer’s #1 Most Diverse Law Firm in the country (2020 and 2021), Law360’s #1 Best Law Firm for Female Attorneys (2019 and 2020), #1 on Law360’s Diversity Snapshot (2019 and 2020), and Law360’s “Ceiling Smasher” list for highest percentage of female equity partners, five years in a row (2016-2020).
“I’ve been thrilled to step into the culture at BAL,” says COO and Partner Leslie Rohrbacker, who joined the firm this month. “I’ve spent years of my career mentoring women through my work as a practicing lawyer and operational executive in various organizations and industries. While many firms struggle with representation and inclusion, that is clearly not the case at BAL—it’s a special place where women thrive and are truly empowered to lead and make a positive difference in the lives of people all over the world.”