(LOS ANGELES, March 18, 2014) — Reed Smith LLP is pleased to announce that, for the second year in a row, the firm has received the prestigious Thomas L. Sager Award for the West Region from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“We are deeply honored to receive this distinction for a second year in a row,” said Washington, D.C.-based Financial Industry Group partner Tyree P. Jones, who serves as the firm’s Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion. “I think it particularly reflects the outstanding efforts of our international Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and demonstrates the momentum of our increasing efforts to recruit and retain diverse personnel in all positions, firm-wide.”

Each year, MCCA awards the Thomas L. Sager Award to five law firms across the nation that exemplify diversity and inclusion by improving their hiring, retention and promotion of minority attorneys. The award is named for MCCA board member and DuPont Company Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Thomas L. Sager.

In addition to analyzing statistical data, the MCCA rates Sager nominees on diversity results in recruitment, retention, mentoring, promotion, pipeline initiatives, LGBT initiatives, women initiatives, work-life balance, collaborative efforts with community and bar associations, and innovative practices that result in sustainable efforts to increase diversity.

Reed Smith has several programs to recruit, retain and promote individuals without regard to their race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status or physical challenge.

The firm is widely recognized for its overall Diversity & Inclusion efforts. In recent months, Reed Smith has been awarded the 2014 Diversity Leader Award by Profiles in Diversity Journal; honored by The National Black Child Development Institute with its 2013 Corporate Citizen Award; and earned a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s 2014 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which also named it among the Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality in the United States.

Additionally, for its cutting-edge Women’s Initiative Network of Reed Smith, the firm is widely considered as one of the very best law firms for women in the world, according to The American Lawyer, Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, and the Women In Law Empowerment Forum; Yale Law Women; Euromoney LMG’s Europe Women in Business Law Awards, and the Chambers USA Women in Law Awards.

Reed Smith was presented with the Thomas L. Sager Award for the West Region at MCCA’s annual CLE Expo held March 12-13 in Los Angeles. Accepting the award on behalf of Reed Smith was Los Angeles-based Terry B. Bates, who has been a member of Reed Smith's Diversity & Inclusion Committee since 2005, assisting in the implementation of the firm’s policies and best practices.

Reed Smith had been named a West Region Finalist for the 2014 Sager Award along with law firms Farella Braun + Martel LLP and Lowenstein Sandler.

The firm now holds three of these annual honors, earning its first Thomas L. Sager Award for the West Region—which includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming—in 2005. It was also among the three Sager Award finalists in 2012.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is a global relationship law firm with more than 1,800 lawyers in 25 offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1877, the firm represents leading international businesses, from Fortune 100 corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its lawyers provide litigation and other dispute resolution services in multi-jurisdictional and other high-stakes matters; deliver regulatory counsel; and execute the full range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith is a preeminent advisor to industries including financial services, life sciences, health care, advertising, technology and media, shipping, energy and natural resources, real estate, manufacturing, and education. For more information, visit reedsmith.com.

U.S.: New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, Princeton, Northern Virginia, Wilmington, Silicon Valley, Century City, Richmond

Europe: London, Paris, Munich, Greece

Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Dubai

Asia: Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Kazakhstan