Foster Garvey and JMMP Announce Launch of Stone Scholars Class Honoring Rafael Stone
Beginning in 2024, The Washington Joint Minority Mentorship Program (JMMP) law student and new lawyer mentees who completed its one-year mentorship program were named “Stone Scholars” in honor of Foster Garvey attorney Rafael Stone’s steadfast commitment to championing access to opportunity throughout the legal profession nationally, and especially in Washington state.
JMMP Founder and King County Superior Court Judge E. Rania Rampersad stated that “Mr. Stone has been a trailblazer, mentor and guide for diverse attorneys in the Washington state legal community for decades. By acknowledging his legacy, we hope our mentors will be moved to follow his example of service, and our mentees will be inspired to pay it forward.”
JMMP is a groundbreaking collaboration between 16 of the major Washington bar associations, through which the state’s minority bar associations, alongside the King County Bar Association, Washington State Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association, all host an annual mentorship program for law students and new lawyers in Washington state.
Each year, JMMP pairs minority law students/new lawyers with experienced mentor attorneys and judges to support them through a full year of mentorship programming. The program has served more than 230 law students and new lawyers over the last five years and will launch again in March 2024 with an additional 50 mentor-mentee pairings—the first class of Stone Scholars.
Mr. Stone is the Co-Chair of Foster Garvey and its Investment Management practice group. He has served as chair of the board of directors of one of the nation’s largest newspapers and has been recognized extensively for his work with institutional investors, ranking both nationally and globally by Chambers & Partners for investor representation, while also being regarded as one of the most influential Black attorneys in the country.
Mr. Stone has long been recognized as a pioneer. During his breaks from being a star point guard for the University of Washington and stunning crowds with his assist records and scoring on the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he was tearing down social barriers by becoming the first Black man to join a Greek Row fraternity, Psi Upsilon. He would continue his career being the first in several other aspects of his life, including being the first Black man to have been hired, promoted to owner, and then to manage a major Seattle firm.
For more than 50 years, Mr. Stone has driven Foster Garvey and the broader legal community to provide access to opportunity with a talent-first approach. He was instrumental in launching one of the first law firm diversity hiring programs in the country at Foster Garvey, and throughout his career, he has supported and mentored many, making sure that a diversity of lived experiences would have a seat at some of the most important decision-making tables.
JMMP’s annual mentor-mentee pairing kickoff event was held on March 27 at Foster Garvey’s Seattle office.