Theresa Cropper Joins Perkins Coie as Director of Diversity

CHICAGO (October 2, 2007) – Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Theresa Cropper has joined the firm as its new director of diversity and professional development. She joins the firm from DLA Piper, where she was the national director of diversity responsible for coordinating the efforts to recruit, retain and promote the diverse attorney.

Prior to DLA Piper, Cropper served in a number of roles at Northwestern University School of Law, including associate dean, dean of students and director of minority affairs. In her role as dean of students, she developed programs designed to provide professional development outside of the classroom, covering a variety of areas such as leadership development, team building, diversity training, problem solving and networking. As director of minority affairs, she created the Office of Minority Affairs with the goal of developing a proactive approach to issues important to minority students.

"At Perkins Coie, we value diversity as part of our culture and pride ourselves on our diversity initiatives. Theresa's wealth of experience will be invaluable as we continue to develop a workforce that reflects the richness of diversity within our communities," said Robert Giles, managing partner.

"I am excited to be joining Perkins Coie," said Cropper. "As a whole, the firm understands the importance of bringing together people from diverse backgrounds. Its ongoing commitment to growing its diverse workforce is shown through its response to calls to action such as The Chicago Bar Association Call to Action on Women’s Leadership in the Legal Profession and the Bar Association of San Francisco’s 2010 Diversity Goals and Recommendations. I look forward to working with Perkins Coie to further develop our diversity goals."