George B. Vashon Innovator Award

Unlike previous years, this year, the MCCA determined the law firm honoree for the Vashon Award based on its extensive review of the 2021 MCCA Law Firm Diversity Survey submissions. Based on that extensive analysis of the firms’ demographic data as well as the corresponding quantitative trend data of each firm’s recruiting, retention and promotion efforts we selected our 2021 George B. Vashon Innovator award honoree, Hanson Bridgett LLP.
The 2021 George B. Vashon Innovator award honoree, Hanson Bridgett LLP was recognized on October 12 at our Virtual Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference . Please join us in honoring their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
About George B. Vashon

As a teenager, alongside his father who was an abolitionist and well-respected leader in the black community, Vashon co-founded the Pittsburgh anti-slavery society in 1838. He attended Oberlin College, where he was the first African-American to receive a bachelor’s degree. After he was denied the right to practice law in Allegheny County, he moved to New York and became the first licensed African-American attorney in that state. Later returning to Pittsburgh, Vashon became a principal at the African-American public school and served as president of Avery College. Vashon moved to Washington, D.C., where he was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and, in 1867, became one of the first black professors at Howard University. Vashon died in Mississippi in 1878 during a yellow-fever epidemic.
2020 George B. Vashon Innovator Honorees
2018 George B. Vashon Innovator Honorees
2017 George B. Vashon Innovator Honorees


2017 George B. Vashon Innovator Finalists
Law Firm Finalists



Corporate Law Department Finalists


Past Honorees List
MCCA is proud to honor and distinguish firms that tried something new and succeeded, whether in recruitment and retention, mentoring, pipeline initiatives, LGBT initiatives, or client inclusion feedback. Click here to view the complete list of our past George B. Vashon Innovator Award honorees.