SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Stoel Rives LLP is pleased to announce that the Sacramento Business Journal has selected partner Bryan L. Hawkins to receive a 2023 Champions for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion “Outstanding Individual” Award, which celebrates individuals who have shown exceptional commitment to promoting practices that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in their workplace and community. The honorees, who were selected by an independent panel of judges., will be honored at an awards luncheon on July 20, 2023, at the Officer’s Club at McClellan Park.
Hawkins, managing partner for Stoel’s Sacramento, San Diego, and San Francisco offices, advances DE&I at the firm through his participation in industry-leading initiatives that attract and retain diverse attorneys and staff. Stoel is a founding member of Move the Needle, an innovative program developed with Diversity Lab to achieve aggressive diversity goals. In California, Hawkins spearheads experimental diversity initiatives, including Diversity Lab’s Ally Action Pledge, in which senior partners champion diverse junior attorneys to overcome career barriers experienced by underrepresented lawyers at firms, such as unequal access to supportive networks and career-advancing work.
An active diversity advocate in Sacramento’s legal industry, Hawkins is a member—and former president—of the Sacramento County Bar Association (SCBA), for which he addresses diversity issues in the legal profession and supports the work of SCBA’s diverse attorney affiliate bars. As a member of SCBA’s Diversity Fellowship Program, Hawkins helps select first-year law students for annual Diversity Fellowships that place diverse law students in private law firms—providing them with career-building experience and encouraging firms to hire diverse lawyers.
A leading labor and employment attorney in Sacramento, Hawkins is renowned for obtaining favorable outcomes in high-stakes litigation in court and before agencies such as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as for his tireless counsel to companies globally in employment best practices to eliminate bias, discrimination, and harassment.
Hawkins maintains an active pro bono practice in which he defends civil rights protections impacting diverse individuals, recently representing tenants in underserved communities regarding substandard housing and a transgender inmate alleging abuse in California’s prison system.