Employment Law Seminar 2017

Commitment to Client Service is our daily mission. From our offices in Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, we represent corporate, institutional, and individual clients around the world.

We provide counsel to employers for their most sophisticated legal needs and work to improve quality of life in the communities we serve. Together, we are part of an increasingly diverse, multicultural, and global marketplace—a world full of change, challenges and possibilities.

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are fundamental to our culture.

Through embracing everyone’s differences, we know we can:

  • Better understand and serve the unique legal and business needs of our many and varied clients
  • Attract and develop highly skilled, uniquely talented team members
  • Create a culture that values differences, fosters forward thinking, and inspires individuals to do their best work
  • Provide creative, innovative, and ultimately successful solutions to our clients
  • More fully live our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for others

Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mission guides our approach and our workplace:
By cultivating a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture, we seek to reflect those we serve and engage the perspectives, ideas and innovative thoughts that inspire outstanding legal solutions and exceptional service.

On behalf of Miller Johnson, and the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, we are pleased to share with you our 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report. This report details our efforts within the community, and within our own business, to best reflect those we serve and those who trust us with their legal matters. We are proud to represent the finest corporate, institutional, and individual clients in the world.

Managing Partners Diversity Collaborative Agreement

Miller Johnson is a founding member of the Managing Partners Diversity Collaborative Agreement, a formal commitment between Grand Rapids law firms and the Grand Rapids Bar Association to work together to promote and achieve greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the West Michigan legal community through education, hiring, retention and promotion.

The participating members in the Agreement have developed an Action Plan to address three initial challenges:

  • Increasing the number of attorneys of color
  • Improving the retention of both female attorneys and attorneys of color
  • Expanding the pipeline of persons of color entering law school and the profession

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

Formed in 2009, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) is made up of the general counsels of the nation’s preeminent corporations and of the managing partners of the nation’s leading law firms. Miller Johnson is actively participating in the LCLD Fellows Program and the 1L LCLD Scholars Program as part of our commitment to make the profession increasingly open to talented individuals of all backgrounds. To learn more about the LCLD, visit www.lcldnet.org.

Formed in 2009, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) is made up of the general counsels of the nation’s preeminent corporations and of the managing partners of the nation’s leading law firms. Miller Johnson is actively participating in the LCLD Fellows Program and the 1L LCLD Scholars Program as part of our commitment to make the profession increasingly open to talented individuals of all backgrounds. Learn more about the LCLD program here.

Miller Johnson has signed on to the LCLD Leaders at the Front Diversity Initiative. 

Leaders at the Front is an initiative designed to dismantle systemic barriers preventing underrepresented attorneys from achieving the highest levels of leadership within law firms and corporate legal departments.  Rich Sorota, CEO at Miller Johnson is the latest firm leader to sign on to this initiative.

LCLD Fellows Program

For 2024, Richard Cherry is Miller Johnson’s designee in the Fellows Program – an ambitious, highly structured training program designed to build relationships and leadership skills in high-potential attorneys from diverse backgrounds. Rich follows in the footsteps of:

LCLD Pathfinders Program

For 2024, Ewelina Sawicka and Brandon Tomash are Miller Johnson’s designees in the LCLD Pathfinders Program – designed for diverse, high-potential, early-career attorneys. They continue the firm’s involvement following:

Miller Johnson Michigan Diversity Scholarship

Students of color accepted to or attending law school within the US with a permanent residence in Michigan are invited to apply for this scholarship. Students must demonstrate financial need, have a minimum 3.0 GPA, and be a permanent resident, refugee, or asylee of the US. Download the application PDF from www.grfoundation.org after January 1.

Giving Back goes back a long way for us.

We believe it’s our responsibility to give back to the community that’s made us successful—one that has grown and changed with us—since our founding in 1959.

We contribute our skills, resources, and energies through pro bono legal services, volunteering, and leadership on behalf of our clients. Our firm’s Community Contributions Policy is defined by four priorities:

  • Helping underserved populations by ensuring individuals and families have access to legal services, fair housing practices, and health care
  • Promoting a more diverse workplace by increasing opportunities for women and minorities
  • Enriching the community through educational programs for children and young people, as well as supporting the arts and cultural diversity
  • Building the future by advancing the life sciences, fostering economic development, and attending to environmental stewardship

Pro Bono Services

In May of 2002, the Grand Rapids Bar Association dedicated its Legal Assistance Center to Miller Johnson Founding Member John W. Cummiskey for “working tirelessly to improve access to justice for the poor locally and statewide.”

Our attorneys and staff continue to pay homage to “Mr. C” and his unwavering commitment to “giving back.” His belief was that it was a lawyer’s duty to give back to society. For John, the practice of law was not just a job, not just a paycheck – it was a higher calling, a privilege that carried with it obligations to society as a whole.

We are proud to be a Leadership Level firm in the State Bar of Michigan’s Pro Bono Circle of Excellence.

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Global Service is a phone call away.

Miller Johnson is West Michigan’s law firm, but we reach far beyond to serve a worldwide client base.

Considering an office in Germany? Doing business in China? Expanding to Nashville? Our affiliation with Meritas©—an alliance of over 7,000 lawyers at over 170 full-service law firms in over 70 countries—gives us access to quality worldwide legal services.