The Maryland State Bar Association’s Litigation Section has named McGuireWoods Baltimore office managing partner Ava Lias-Booker as its 2015-2016 “Litigator of the Year,” recognizing her professional achievements and her contributions to the community. Lias-Booker received the award at the MSBA’s annual meeting in Ocean City, Maryland, on June 16.
Lias-Booker heads McGuireWoods’ Baltimore litigation practice and is a member of the firm’s board of partners. She represents businesses in complex commercial and civil litigation matters and has served as lead counsel for Fortune 100 companies in numerous significant cases in Maryland. In 2013, she led a McGuireWoods team that won the largest-ever reversal of monetary damages handed down by a Maryland court — more than $1.5 billion in damages against an oil company — in two cases stemming from a 2006 underground gasoline leak at a service station.
A leader in the community, she is a member of the Magistrate Judges’ Merit Selection Panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and was a gubernatorial appointee to the Maryland Appellate Judicial Nominating Committee. She also serves on the University of Maryland Law School Board of Visitors and on the boards of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Enoch Pratt Free Library. She recently was named to The Daily Record’s 2016 list of Maryland’s Top 100 Women and inducted into the Circle of Excellence, an honor exclusive to three-time honorees.
The MSBA Litigation Section works to elevate the level of trial and appellate practice in Maryland’s state and federal courts and makes recommendations on litigation rules, procedures and practices. The MSBA’s 22-member Litigation Section Council selected Lias-Booker for the award.
“The Maryland State Bar Association’s Litigation Section does so much to uphold the highest standards in our profession, and I’m honored to receive this recognition from such an esteemed group of lawyers,” Lias-Booker said.