KANSAS CITY (August 6, 2024) — Lathrop GPM is proud to announce that Chief Culture, Diversity and Engagement Officer Vanessa Vaughn West has been honored with Missouri Lawyers Media’s Diversity & Inclusion Award. This distinction recognizes attorneys, firms, organizations and legal professionals who are significantly advancing diversity, inclusion and the dignity of all people in Missouri’s legal profession and communities in which exceptional legal work impacts justice for all.
Vaughn West will receive the award during the publication’s annual Diversity & Inclusion Awards ceremony, which will be held virtually on August 8, 2024. She will be honored alongside two other DEI professionals and 12 attorneys.
The lead of Lathrop GPM’s efforts to cultivate a positive and inclusive work environment, Vaughn West supports the firm’s culture of professional growth, career development and employee engagement, a core firm strategic priority. She also leads the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy, including a commitment to the Mansfield Rule 6.0 certification, which requires at least 30% of historically underrepresented lawyers to be considered for leadership roles and equity partnerships.
Since joining Lathrop GPM, Vaughn West has led the firm’s efforts to create new programs and elevate existing ones, designed to build a culture of belonging and inclusion. This includes enhancing the firm’s fellowship and scholarship programs, building multifaceted firmwide educational programs and providing new opportunities for professional and personal development for underrepresented talent. She also serves on the firm’s Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, which works toward long-range diversity goals, with an emphasis on elevating firm-wide cultural competency, increasing opportunities for underrepresented attorneys and staff and growing implicit bias understanding.
The recipients of the Diversity & Inclusion Award are selected by the Missouri Lawyers Media editorial department from nominations submitted by the Missouri legal community. Honorees were chosen based on demonstrated commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession over the course of their careers.