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Awards Honor Efforts to Promote Diversity and Public Interest
By Amaris Elliott-Engel
December 17, 2008
The Legal Intelligencer
When Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr. was honored with the Philadelphia Bar Association's first Chancellor's Diversity Award, Atkinson dedicated the award to his great-grandfather: the first black attorney to be admitted to practice law in New York....
Atkinson said during the bar association's annual meeting last week that his great-grandfather, George Vashon, was born in Pittsburgh in 1824 and studied at Oberlin College before studying under a judge.
However, Vashon was denied admission to the bar "because of his Negro descent," Atkinson said. A change to the Pennsylvania Constitution in that era had limited the franchise to white men.
Vashon moved to Syracuse, N.Y., where he became the first black lawyer to practice law in New York.
Bar Association Chancellor Mike Pratt wanted to create the diversity award to honor a law firm, legal organization or individual who has worked the hardest to advance diversity in the legal profession.
The nominees' accomplishments must be in keeping with the bar association's statement of diversity principles, which were adopted in June and committed the bar association to promote "meaningful diversity" including the representation of minorities in law firms, law schools and other legal organizations.
Vernon Francis, chairman of the awards committee, said Atkinson was honored with the first diversity award because of his work to co-found the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, which was founded in March 2001 to promote diversity in the practice of law, particularly with a summer program for first-year minority law students. Atkinson also was honored because his life exemplifies "what we can achieve as people of color," Francis said.
When major law firms weren't really hiring black lawyers, Atkinson went out and formed his own firm, and later in his career he joined a major law firm, Francis said. Atkinson is Duane Morris' chief diversity officer and a partner with that firm.
Atkinson said he formed the PDLG after meeting with former Chancellor Edward Chacker in 1999 on the issue of diversity. Chacker introduced Atkinson to John Waller, who was then in-house counsel at Sunoco. Waller and he met for a year, adding other partners in their project.
After holding a conference on the issue of diversity within the legal profession, that group decided to form the PDLG in order to introduce law students from diverse backgrounds to both law firms and corporations in the Philadelphia area.
Atkinson said he was pleased to receive the award, but he hopes the fact the bar association is giving out an award to honor diversity efforts means that lawyers won't start thinking that the work in diversifying the profession is completed.
"There's a lot more work that has to be done in this area and, while there are a lot of people who are trying to increase diversity, we have a lot more that needs to be done," Atkinson said. "I'm only cautiously flattered. It's not like we crossed the finish line." ...
This article originally appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and is republished here with permission from law.com.
