Winston & Strawn Launches Fifth Cohort of D&I Associate Sponsorship Program

Last week, Winston & Strawn launched the fifth cohort of our D&I Associate Sponsorship Program. The innovative program pairs high-performing diverse associates in their fifth or sixth year of practice with a sponsor for one year. Each sponsor is drawn from Winston’s Executive Committee to ensure that protégés have sponsors with significant influence and connections to leverage on their behalf. In addition to regularly meeting with their sponsors throughout the year, protégés will receive professional development programming as well as individual and group coaching. 

To officially launch this cycle of the program, sponsors and protégés gathered in New York for a day-long session that included remarks by both firm Chair Tom Fitzgerald and Chair-Elect Steve D’Amore; an interactive session led by Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Sylvia James on covering and how to leverage authenticity for personal and professional success; a panel discussion moderated by former protégé and current D&I Manager John Selim Tschirgi on deconstructing the sponsor-protégé relationship with former protégés Cristina Calvar, Maria Kenny, Shreyansi Agarwal, and Michael Smaila; a session with Director of Coaching and Well-Being Diane Costigan on how to make the most of the program; and a keynote presentation by Dr. Arin N. Reeves, a leading researcher, author, and advisor in the fields of leadership and inclusion. 

Congratulations to these 21 protégés who were selected to participate in the 2023-2024 program:

• Farah Alkayed
• Elisa Baca
• Katherine Bailey
• Brandon Brown
• Jessica Diedrich
• Ashley Dumoff
• Amelia Garza-Mattia
• Liz Grden
• Natalie Holden
• Alexander Iparraguirre
• Hamza Khan
• Monica Kociolek
• Kaitlin Marino
• Rebecca Michael
• Chris Parker
• Gabriela Plasencia
• Michelle Tuma
• Merav Watson
• Brooke Wilson
• Marianna Wonder
• Juan Yaquian