Diversity is key to our firm culture, and the New York diversity committee is wholly committed to fostering a diverse community of lawyers, administrators, paralegals and staff. 

The New York office actively participates in diversity programs, such as the New York City Bar Minority Fellowship Program, which allows attorneys of color to intern as clerks the summer following their first year of law school.  Members of the diversity committee frequently speak at law school panels on issues affecting minorities, as well as on issues dealing with work-life balance.

The New York committee is committed to pro bono work in civil rights.  On October 25, 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued an historic decision ruling that gays and lesbians are entitled to all the marital rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples.  Sonnenschein played a critical role in the case by representing the former Chair of the Family Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association as an amicus.  Sonnenschein has an ongoing relationship with Immigration Equality to do pro bono asylum work for gays, lesbians, transgendered and HIV-positive people who seek to escape persecution in their home countries.  

The committee seeks to foster a sense of community at the office.  To that end, in addition to hosting various events, the Committee sponsors a popular diversity book club in which participants discuss issues affecting diverse communities by analyzing works of literature.