Diversity & Inclusion

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As a firm focused on intellectual property, litigation, and technology, innovation is Rothwell Figg’s specialty. And innovative thinking is powered by diverse viewpoints and experiences. Within our walls, we emphasize creating a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming professional environment, a safe workplace, and a platform for success for everyone. We are committed to recruiting, training, retaining, and promoting a diverse workforce, and providing equal opportunity for all individuals, regardless of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, personal appearance, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, political affiliation, or genetic information.

At Rothwell Figg, we’re dedicated to fostering diversity in our firm, in the field of law, with our clients, and in the community.

We recruit at law schools with diverse student populations in an effort to connect with attorneys with diversified backgrounds. On a day-to-day level, because of our firm’s relatively small size, associates enjoy an unusually high level of contact, collaboration, and mentorship opportunities with senior attorneys. This is how professional success and advancement are fostered in legal careers, and we are committed to supporting it. Additionally, Rothwell Figg is proud to be a Foundation Partner of The Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL). FADIPL supports members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in their pursuit of careers in intellectual property law.

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Black History Month at Rothwell Figg

Learn how Rothwell Figg honored the achievements and sacrifices of African Americans during the month of February.

We pay special attention to supporting women in intellectual property and technology law. Launched in 2016, the Women of Rothwell Figg group is dedicated to promoting the professional development, health, and well-being of female legal professionals, as well as promoting diversity, inclusion, and social awareness both within the professional setting and outside of it. The group meets monthly and regularly has professional women from outside the firm speak on topics such as the importance of digital personas, how we can make an impact on diversity in the IP and technology fields, and defining success for ourselves. The Women of Rothwell organize and encourage firmwide participation in activities such as the #FITDC HerStory 5K to celebrate Women’s History Month.

The firm also participates in conferences like Women Influence and Power in Law (WIPL) that work to promote women and minority attorneys. We have hosted and sponsored panels on diversity in which in-house attorneys discuss their efforts to promote women and minority attorneys at their companies, and work to ensure that outside counsel staffs their cases with diverse teams and gives all team members an active role. We recognize that partnering with our clients to foster diversity is an effective strategy, and support it.

Rothwell Figg has a longstanding relationship with Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland. A college-preparatory school with 100% minority student enrollment, the firm is a proud corporate partner of their innovative Corporate Work Study program and hosts students who seek to gain professional work experience and earn money to pay for a portion of their education. Since the first graduating class in 2011, 100% of all Don Bosco Cristo Rey graduates have been accepted to college.

At the highest levels of the firm, we are also active in pro bono efforts that advance the public interest or the greater good, right wrongs, or prevent or remedy injustice. These projects have a particular focus on representing traditionally marginalized groups. A few examples include:

  • We’re working with the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition to stop the sale of the Moses African Cemetery, a burial ground for formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants, to a developer unless it complies with Maryland state law. You can learn more about our recent efforts and read about case updates here and here.
  • We represent Chabad, a worldwide Jewish organization, in a long-running lawsuit against the Russian Federation to recover sacred texts by the Nazis and illegally held by Russia. You can learn more about our recent efforts and read about case updates here, here, and here.
  • We’ve successfully obtained a $100,000 judgment for Kurt Eichenwald, a prominent journalist who is epileptic and was targeted on Twitter by a white supremacist who sent Eichenwald a flashing strobe light post to induce a seizure. The case was included in Law360's biggest personal injury decisions and verdicts of 2020.

As attorneys, we have an obligation to ensure that the values of justice and fairness that are the very heart of the practice of law are fully realized in our profession and in the world at large. To that end, diversity is a foundational issue for Rothwell Figg, and one we actively and consistently seek to promote and encourage.

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