Path to Leadership

April 20, 2020

The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity is a national organization of more than 320 corporate counsel and law firm managing partners dedicated to creating a diverse legal profession. McGuireWoods has been an active member since LCLD’s founding in 2009, participating in the organization’s signature professional development programs.

In keeping with the firm’s core value of promoting diversity and inclusion, McGuireWoods attorneys often take part in LCLD programs. The firm recently selected New York partner Wanda French-Brown as the firm’s representative member for the LCLD Fellows Program, a career development initiative that helps talented lawyers from diverse backgrounds build client relationships and excel in leadership roles. The firm also selected associates Anthony Le and Calvin Shin as its representative members of the LCLD Pathfinder Program for early-career attorneys.

French-Brown is a litigator who handles patent infringement matters for clients in a range of technologies, including wireless communication and mobile devices, LCD and LED, biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare diagnostics and pharmaceuticals with a concentration in Hatch-Waxman litigation. As an LCLD fellow, she will join lawyers from law firms and major corporations in a yearlong program focused on leadership.

“I am proud to represent McGuireWoods as an LCLD fellow and eager for the opportunity to engage with peers and LCLD leaders over the next year,” French-Brown said. 

In LCLD’s Pathfinder Program, Le and Shin will have opportunities to polish their networking, leadership and career strategies through in-person meetings, regional gatherings and online learning programs.

“The experience will be rewarding and memorable on a personal and professional level,” said Le, an associate based in San Francisco. “I look forward to building relationships with other talented attorneys, at other firms and in-house, across the country. I am grateful for the opportunity, and will pass on the lessons I learn to my colleagues at the firm.”

Shin, based in Century City, California, anticipates cultivating relationships with peers and learning from leaders in law firms and corporate legal departments.

“It will be interesting to hear how other diverse lawyers have built their practices and networks and how in-house and law firm leaders have succeeded in their careers,” Shin said.

Partner Ava Lias-Booker, chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, said, “LCLD is doing important work to develop a diverse pipeline of future leaders and McGuireWoods is proud of its longstanding support for the organization and its mission. For more than a decade, the firm’s support of LCLD illustrates our commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion at the firm and in the legal profession.”