© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(April 11) – Baseball is back and Andrews Kurth is starting off the 2014 season with a home run.
The Houston-based law firm announced Wednesday that it is the recipient of the 8th Annual Jackie Robinson Day “Most Valuable Diverse Business Partner (MVDBP)” Award from Major League Baseball (MLB). It is the first time the MLB expanded the award to include an organization that is not minority- or women-owned.
“It is a unique honor that permanently aligns us with a great man,” said Elizabeth Campbell, chief diversity officer of the firm.
Campbell says she is proud of the firm’s total body of work in its diversity efforts, including recruiting her in 2007 to be a full-time diversity and inclusion specialist. At the time, she said no other law firm in the country had a position at the partner level dedicated purely to leading a firm’s diversity efforts. This is one of the reasons she likens the firm to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
“It is a great firm wanting to do something even better,” she said. “Our managing partner, like Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey did, has a great vision for the future.”
Andrews Kurth has been in the forefront of engaging with the MLB, Campbell said. It is the second year in a row the firm has sponsored the league’s Diverse Business Summit, and firm lawyers and staff have been involved with the league’s Civil Rights Game activities the past five years.
Firm representatives will receive the award on April 15 – Jackie Robinson Day – at Minute Maid Park when the Astros host the Kansas City Royals. Andrews Kurth managing partner Bob Jewell will throw out the first pitch. On the same night, Campbell will be in New York at an MLB Diverse Business Summit screening of “42,” the 2013 biopic of Robinson, the first African-American to play in the MLB.
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