Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP, Founding Sponsor of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Diversity Scholarship Program, Announces Its First Scholarship Recipient

DENVER, CO… As a founding sponsor of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Diversity Scholarship Program, Denver-based litigation firm, Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP (www.wtklaw.com) is proud to announce the first recipient of its Wheeler Trigg Kennedy Scholarship. Rosario Daza is a first-year student at the University of Washington School of Law. Ms. Daza is one of eighteen law students, chosen from 580 applicantsin this inaugural year of the MCCA’s Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Program, created to broaden access to the legal arena. Scholars will receive a $10,000 financial award for each of their three years in school. With the help of founding sponsors, such as Wheeler Trigg Kennedy, the MCCA has committed $380,000 to recipients of the program to date.

“Born in Colombia and raised in the United States from a young age, Rosario Daza is a great example of the future lawyers of America, and we’re honored to have her as our first scholarship recipient,” stated Wheeler Trigg Kennedy Managing Partner Hugh Gottschalk, who served on the MCCA’s Scholarship Selection Committee. “An Hispanic American, Ms. Daza plans to apply her compelling journalism background to the field of immigration and international law, and as she has stated, ‘bring a bicultural perspective to the legal profession’.”

Gottschalk continued: “The MCCA is opening doors for law students of all backgrounds, and we encourage local students who meet the selection criteria to apply for next year’s financial awards. We also challenge other law firms to step up to the plate and join the MCCA to help prime the pipeline of diverse legal talent for the lawyers of tomorrow.” WTK has pledged $30,000 over the next three years.

Initiated by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and funded by the business and legal communities, the Lloyd M. Johnson, Jr. Scholarship Program is a professional development program geared to align diversity efforts with global business goals by increasing access to opportunities for students earlier in their careers. The program reflects the largest financial commitment by a legal organization for the support of diversity scholarship and education in the history of the profession.

From the nation’s leading Fortune 500 companies and top legal offices in the nation, the Founding Sponsors of the scholarship program include: Abbott Laboratories, Boeing, AstraZeneca, Doar Litigation Consulting, DuPont, Microsoft, Pfizer, Sara Lee, Wal-Mart, , and the law firms of Adorno & Yoss, Baker & McKenzie, Collier Shannon Scott, Fulbright & Jaworski, King & Spalding and Wheeler Trigg Kennedy. Founding sponsors have a scholarship in their name and a seat on the scholarship selection committee.

About MCCA:
MCCA was founded in 1997 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation to advocate for the expanded hiring, retention, and promotion of diverse attorneys in corporate law departments and the law firms that serve them. MCCA accomplishes its mission through the collection and dissemination of information and resources about diversity in the legal profession. For more information on the program, selection criteria and MCCA, see the organization’s Web site at www.mcca.com.


About WTK:
Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP is an entrepreneurial law firm that has dedicated itself to litigation for Fortune 500 clients and other successful entities that have a strong interest in protecting their brand names, products, people and customers. WTK handles complex litigation matters, including appellate, trial, and related areas of civil litigation, on a local, regional and national scale for many of the nation's best-known companies. Most of its work takes place in federal and state courtrooms and administrative venues outside its base of Denver, Colorado. WTK has served as lead trial counsel in all 50 States and has tried cases to verdict in 35 states. The attorneys of WTK have appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, 11 of the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, 65 of the 94 U.S. District Courts and many federal regulatory agencies.

For more information, visit the WTK website at www.wtklaw.com.