Brownstein Announces Appointment of Airina Rodrigues and David Spaulding as Co-Chairs of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck is pleased to announce the appointment of Airina Rodrigues and David Spaulding, shareholders in the firm’s Denver office, as its co-chairs of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Rodrigues, who works in the firm’s Intellectual Property Department, is an active member of the firm’s Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) and Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (CODIE), where she serves on its Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Tapestry employee resource group. Spaulding, who works in the firm’s Corporate & Business Department, is an active member of CODIE and served as co-chair of the firm’s Pride employee resource group.

“Airina and David have long championed the firm’s DEI efforts, and I look forward to seeing their impact as our new co-chairs,” said Rich Benenson, Brownstein’s managing partner. 

In their new roles, Rodrigues and Spaulding will collaborate with Margaux Trammell, the firm’s chief talent officer, to support Brownstein’s strategic planning efforts and continue to emphasize DEI across recruiting, retention and professional development efforts. 

Rodrigues and Spaulding succeed Ali Metzl, who has been instrumental in driving the firm’s DEI initiatives for over a decade as founder and former chair of CODIE and co-founder and former chair of WLI. 

Under Metzl’s leadership, the firm has received several accolades for its DEI efforts, including achieving Mansfield Certification from Diversity Lab for six consecutive years; ranking in the top 5 on The American Lawyer’s List of AmLaw 200 firms with the highest percentage of female equity partners; being named to Seramount’s “Best Law Firms for Women” in 2019, 2020 and 2022; receiving a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for three consecutive years; and ranking sixth in Law360 Pulse’s Ceiling Smashers list of law firms of 251–600 attorneys with the highest representation of women in their equity partnerships. In addition, the firm launched new employee resource groups and introduced a variety of signature programs to support DEI initiatives.