Hahn & Hahn LLP Certified As Women & Minority Owned Business Enterprise

The Women & Minority Owned Business Enterprise certification verifies that a majority of the firm’s partnership are now women or minorities. – Courtesy photo

Hahn & Hahn LLP, the venerable 118-year-old law firm based in Pasadena, announced today that it has been certified by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as a majority Women & Minority Owned Business Enterprise. The certification verifies that a majority of the firm’s partnership are now women or minorities. Ten of Hahn & Hahn’s sixteen partners qualified the firm for certification.

“Hahn & Hahn is proud to be a leader in bringing greater diversity to the legal industry,” said Managing Partner Karl I. Swaidan. “The firm has a tradition of integrity, excellence, and innovation that goes back more than a century. As we begin our 119th year of service, we are looking ahead to the next hundred years and preparing to meet the changing needs of our world.”

“This marks a watershed moment for Hahn & Hahn,” said Susan T. House, who in 1975 became the firm’s first female lawyer and in 1979 its first female partner. “When I joined the firm, the legal profession was the quintessential Old Boys’ Club. But the guiding principal at Hahn & Hahn was and is to hire exceptional lawyers who are dedicated to the practice of law and who love this community, whoever they may be. It just so happens that the majority of those lawyers are now women and minorities. It was exciting to be part of Hahn & Hahn in the 1970s, it was exciting to witness and be part of the changes during the succeeding decades, and it is gratifying to be part of Hahn & Hahn in 2017. ”

Hahn & Hahn LLP is the largest general service firm in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. The firm’s practices include Business, Litigation, and Trusts & Estates. Hahn & Hahn LLP represents individuals, families, public and private corporations and other business, non-profit and municipal entities in a broad range of matters, including general business and tax advice, corporate and partnership counseling, municipal law, private and public finance, real property and land use matters, environmental compliance, labor and employment law, estate planning, trust and probate matters, family law, commercial transactions, as well as civil and complex litigation before all state and federal courts.

The CPUC has certified women and minority owned business enterprises since 1988. That year, the commission adopted General Order 156, which required certain regulated utilities in the state to increase the utilization of women and minority owned businesses. General Order 156 applies to all investor-owned electric, gas, water and telecommunication utility companies with gross annual revenues in excess of $25 million. There are currently 25 such utilities in the state.

The Women & Minority Owned Business Enterprise certification process is rigorous. It includes verification of the firm’s operational stability and fiscal health, as well as a thorough review of the majority owners’ qualifying characteristics. The process is administered by a CPUC-created entity known as the Supplier Clearinghouse. According to its public database, the Supplier Clearinghouse has certified just 27 women and minority owned law firms throughout the state of California.

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