Halle Vakani honored as Inclusion Champion

Halle Vakani was recently honored as a Champion of Inclusion at NCCJ’s annual Citation Award Dinner.  Since the 1960s, the NCCJ has presented the Citation Award to leaders in the Triad community in recognition of extraordinary efforts to fight bias, bigotry, and racism and make our community a better place for all. Citation Award honorees, Inclusion Champions, and community stakeholders joined earlier this month for an evening of community-building, celebration, and reaffirming the Triad community’s shared commitment to inclusion and respect.

Managing Partner, Jimmy Yates shared, “All of us at Wyrick Robbins are tremendously proud of the work Halle Vakani has done to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts both in our firm and throughout our community. Her leadership as our DEI Committee Chair has brought creative programs and meaningful conversations to our firm. There is still work to be done to bring true equity to the legal profession and our broader community, but we are fortunate that our work is made a bit easier and certainly more fun because of Halle’s spirit and tenacity for change.”

Halle was honored as an Inclusion Champion for her service as the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Chair where she spearheads efforts in programming, Mansfield Rule Certification, the Wyrick Robbins Diversity Scholarship, and diversity and inclusion celebrations.

• PROGRAMMING: The firm partnered with NCCJ to host over half a dozen firm-wide, facilitated discussions on racial equity and systemic racism, in addition to compulsory DEI training.
• MIDSIZE MANSFIELD RULE CERTIFICATION: This 18-months long certification is designed to increase the number of attorneys from historically underrepresented groups working in and leading law firms with 25-150 US attorneys.
• WYRICK ROBBINS DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP: Awarded to a diverse 1L law student, the scholarship is composed of a financial award, summer clerkship with the firm, and mentoring by a Wyrick Robbins attorney throughout the duration of the student’s law school career.
• DIVERSITY & INCLUSION CELEBRATIONS: The DEI Committee hosts diversity events such as PRIDE celebration, Black history month book club, and heritage potluck, among others.