For over 90 years, Sugarman Rogers has been steered by our core values: a commitment to advancing social justice in our community and a belief that a balanced and collaborative workplace empowers us to serve our community and clients better. 

We are dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion and recognize that different life experiences and perspectives are essential to creating a healthy, vibrant, and balanced workplace.  

A Leader of the Bar on Gender Diversity

Since our founding, Sugarman Rogers has welcomed lawyers and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds. We strive to be a firm that is open and inclusive in our hiring, reflecting the community in which our clients and employees work and live. It is an ongoing mission, and we are proud of the milestones we have already achieved.

Women have occupied the senior leadership role within the firm for decades. In 1999, Sugarman Rogers was one of the first law firms in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to elect a woman as managing partner, Regina Roman. In 2017, the tradition continued as Christine Netski succeeded Regina as managing partner. Nearly half of the firm’s partners are women.

Sugarman Rogers has always attracted top talent and the brightest legal minds, and we excel at hiring, retaining, and promoting gifted women lawyers. Broadening our diverse team takes time, and we are devoted to achieving this while enhancing the first-class representation our clients expect. 

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee is comprised of attorneys and professional staff, who work together to enhance the firm’s culture, policies, and practices. Understanding that education is an essential facet of growth, the firm has provided a diversity training program for all employees, with guidance and support from the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Experience.

Sugarman Rogers also pursues diversity, equity, and inclusion outside the firm. Our attorneys hold leadership roles within the legal community that focus on racial injustice and equality issues. For example, Lisa Goodheart is a member of the Access to Justice Commission and co-chairs the Commission’s Racial Justice and Equity Committee, as well as serving as a Massachusetts liaison to the American Bar Association’s Racial Equity Working Group.

We also proudly focus a portion of our pro bono work on diversity and inclusion matters. Sugarman Rogers worked at the trial court level with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (LDF) in representing Harvard University student and alumni organizations as amicus curiae in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard. This landmark case went to trial in 2018 in the U.S. District Court in Boston and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case involves a challenge to the legality of Harvard’s admissions process, which considers an applicant’s race and ethnicity as one factor in a holistic evaluation that also considers the applicant’s grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, recommendations, and interviews.

In another pro bono case, the firm represents a group of residents of the City of Brockton and the Town of West Bridgewater in a long-running environmental justice battle. The firm has advanced the residents’ environmental justice claims before the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board, in the Supreme Judicial Court, and currently, before the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution (OADR). The case pending before the OADR concerns the public health impacts of fine particulate matter in emissions from a new fossil-fuel power plant proposed for construction in the City of Brockton. Brockton is home to one of the densest and most vulnerable “environmental justice communities” in the Commonwealth, in which almost 97% of the population are people of color, low-income individuals, or people not fluent in the English language.

Our DEI Pledge:

As advocates for justice, defenders of the law, and protectors of the legal process, dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion is integral to our practice. Sugarman Rogers is driven by a core set of principles and the following pledge:

• We have a moral obligation to speak up for the oppressed, marginalized, and abused.
• We condemn acts of violence, hate, and intolerance that jeopardize our democracy and our society.
• We support the right to advocate for constructive, peaceful change rather than silence or suppress voices of dissent.
• We strive to ensure everyone – regardless of race, color, sex or gender identity, age, religion or creed, national origin, socio-economic status, or mental or physical abilities – in the Commonwealth and throughout the United States is treated fairly and with dignity.
• We will promote equality and justice in our community, including pro bono representation of underserved and under-recognized individuals and groups.
• We endeavor to maintain a workplace that respects, values, and supports individuals at every level and enables everyone to succeed and realize their full potentials.
• We seek to recruit, retain, promote, and celebrate attorneys and staff from diverse backgrounds.
• We will continue to identify, cultivate, and support leaders who possess and encourage varying ideas, experiences, and perspectives.
• We endorse and encourage our employees’ participation and involvement in professional, social, community, and charitable organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

By making conscious efforts to uphold this pledge, Sugarman Rogers strives to be a law firm that champions the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, in which all of our people, clients, and business partners can take great pride.