Commitment to Diversity

MGKF strives to create a workplace that promotes and embraces diversity in the areas of race, ethnicity, gender, age, mental/physical abilities, and sexual orientation. We believe that an inclusive environment naturally fosters the best talent to produce excellent results for our clients.

The firm is a proud recipient of the 2021 H. Robert Fiebach Award for the Promotion of Women in the Law by The Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.  The award was created in 2017 to honor Pennsylvania law firms and solo practitioners, corporate law departments and other organizations providing legal services that have instituted programs or initiatives that help women lawyers continue and advance in their careers while maintaining a work/life balance.

MGKF has been named a Law360 “Ceiling Smasher” and was ranked in the top 10 nationally for its percentage of women in the partnership based on firms with less than 100 attorneys. While many law firms’ partnership ranks are still dominated by men, currently females account for 43 percent of the partnership and 50 percent of the overall firm. 

Law360 Pulse’s 2023 Women in Law Report found that women make up 40 percent of all attorneys, but just 28 percent of partners nationally.  At the top level of a typical U.S. law firm, women account for only 25 percent of equity partners, but at the time 47 percent of the equity partners at MGKF are female.

Partner Shoshana (Suzanne Ilene) Schiller received a 2017 Diversity Award from the Diversity Law Institute (DLI) at the Diversity Law Institute Summit & Awards in Philadelphia. DLI Diversity Awards are given annually to a select number of individuals, law firms and companies who have at an elite level promoted, enhanced or supported diversity and inclusion in the profession of law.

MGKF is a proud member of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. Further, to demonstrate our support of diversity initiatives, we have endorsed as a firm policy, the Statement of Diversity Principles adopted by the American Bar Association. 

We are honored to support the newly created Pennsylvania Bar Association Environmental & Energy Law Section (EELS) Minority Law Student Scholarship of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation.  The first scholarships were announced in Spring 2020.  

The firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee has been in place for over a decade. Currently, the committee is comprised of the firm’s Managing Partner, COO, and Hiring Partner, as well as one other partner, an associate and a member of the firm’s administrative or operations staff. Our Hiring Committee is committed to implementing proactive steps to reach out to minority candidates, particularly in our recruiting efforts at law schools. Through these efforts, MGKF strives to promote diversity for historically under-represented practitioners in the fields of environmental and energy law.

Photo ©2013 Avi Loren Fox Photography