Chen serves as Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's Houston office hiring partner and women's initiative chair. She also serves on the recruiting and diversity committees and as a member of the firm's women's resource group.

Born in Taiwan and raised by her grandparents in a rural area, Chen worked as a child in the rice fields, sewed shoes in a factory as a child laborer and cared for her younger brother and cousins. In 1990, at the age of 12, she and her parents moved to Houston, Texas where she started school without knowing any English. Following a trip to Washington, D.C. when she was 16, Alison decided to become a lawyer. In 2012, she was named partner at another large law firm.

As Akin Gump's Houston office hiring partner, Chen is constantly looking for ways to improve diversity, and, under her leadership, she created monthly local programs designed to identify and promote female talent, foster internal and external strong relationships and provide a forum for women attorneys to discuss work-life balance issues. She also routinely serves as a mentor to many diverse junior lawyers.

What is one thing law firms can do immediately to help improve diversity and inclusion within their organizations?

Every law firm should already know where it stands on its diversity score card.  The one thing every law firm can do immediately to improve diversity and inclusion is to take a deeper dive into those statistics and try to figure out why the numbers are the way they are.  I am a big proponent on using data, and firms can gather data related to recruiting, work assignments or allocation, partner promotion, client development, attrition. etc. to see if they can detect patterns and construct a story behind their diversity statistics.  If a particular affinity group is underrepresented, why?  Is the firm unable to attract diverse talent because of recruiting biases or lack of access to the pipeline?  Is the firm behind on its diversity statistics because of retention issues at the associate level?  Are diverse attorneys being staffed on the right deals and meeting important clients?  Are diverse partners reaching their potentials in terms of business development and having firm support and resources?  If diverse attorneys are leaving the firm, why?  Asking these harder questions and having an honest and open dialogue among the leaders of the firm will help a firm shape their diversity and inclusion strategies in the long run.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone that you wish you had starting out?

Don't wait to be asked to contribute.  Even though law firms can be very hierarchical, you should take initiatives at all stages of your career to express your ideas and promote diversity.  When I was an associate, I looked for opportunities to add value to the firm, whether it's serving on the firm's hiring committee or diversity committee, or volunteering to be the firm's ambassador to the local diverse bar association.  I gained valuable leadership skills from these roles and positions and I was able to help shape the firms' strategies and narratives on diversity.

Name an important opportunity you got early in your career and what you did with it.

I had client contacts early on in my career because my mentors and partners trusted me to handle matters directly with clients.  Having client contacts is important to my career because it helps me become a better lawyer—I wasn't just sitting at my desk pushing out documents.  I was able to develop relationships directly with the clients and I am very appreciative of my partners' confidence in me that allowed me to be part of the bigger team.  Now that I am a partner, I want to be able to provide the same opportunities and training to the younger generation of lawyers.  It also helps that I currently serve as the hiring partner of Akin Gump's Houston office, where I can help the firm recruit top diverse legal talent.

An awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 18 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. The Attorney of the Year award winner will be announced at the ceremony.

Click here for booking information. For information about sponsoring the event, contact Andre Sutton at 757-721-9020 or email [email protected].