Roshan N. Rajkumar
Partner and Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair
Bowman and Brooke LLP
Headquarters: Minneapolis, MN
Business: Legal Services
Website: www.bowmanandbrooke.com
Bowman and Brooke, LLP believes the excellence its clients expect is best achieved by building a team of professionals who reflect a broad range of orientations and interests, as well as diverse personal backgrounds. Committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse talent, the firm’s goal is to be a workplace of inclusion and collegiality.
In 2018, the firm initiated Expanding Our Perspectives, a program to connect firm members—attorneys and staff— through speaker presentations with table talk discussions; extended the Affinity Mentor program to all thirteen Bowman and Brooke locations; and received the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity 2018 Top Performer and Compass awards—a recognition given to the Council’s most active member corporations and law firms.
Bowman and Brooke has set as its key goal the retention of all diverse attorneys across all its offices. Other important goals include the following:
- When recruiting summer law clerks, lateral attorneys, and lateral practice groups, interviewing at least 50 percent diverse candidates
- When recruiting for any open non-attorney position, interviewing at least 40 percent diverse candidates
- Re-establishing the Women’s Affinity Group to better connect the firm’s female attorneys (nearly 45 percent of all firm attorneys)
- Establish Affinity Attorney Groups across the firm that focus on specific areas of diversity, including veterans/ active military, LGBTQ, and mothers
- Start conversations across all Bowman and Brooke offices that permit honest, candid discussions about how each employee can feel more included, through the Expanding Our Perspectives program
- Create more sponsorship and allyship programs throughout all 13 offices in order to expand inclusion and a realistic pathway for associates to become partners
In March 2017, firm partner Roshan Rajkumar took over as head of Bowman and Brooke’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which comprises 17 members in 13 offices across the United States. He brought new ideas and energy to the Committee and continues to do a remarkable job in this role.
Rajkumar is also involved in the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers. A strong proponent for law students, and other students, he always makes time to talk with them about the legal profession.
