Locke Lord has named Paulette Brown, Past President of the American Bar Association (ABA), a Senior Partner and the Firm’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer.
Brown, who is the first woman of color to lead the ABA, is based in Locke Lord’s Princeton office. She joins a distinguished and limited list of the Firm’s lawyers who have held the title of Senior Partner. As Co-Chair of the Firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, she has been leading in-person diversity and inclusion training for both lawyers and staff across all of the Firm’s offices. Her hands-on approach has been vital to the continued commitment of the Firm to foster diversity and inclusion. Locke Lord achieved a 100 percent rating in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2018 Corporate Equality Index for the second consecutive year, and Locke Lord predecessor firm Edwards Wildman earned a 100 percent rating for seven consecutive years from 2009-2015. A perfect score in this annual report evaluating LGBTQ-related policies and practices earns the Firm the distinction of a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”
“Paulette’s commitment to, and groundbreaking work on behalf of, diversity and inclusion has made an important and critical difference to our Firm and throughout the country,” said Locke Lord Chair David Taylor. “Diversity and inclusion are cornerstone values at Locke Lord, and we are continuously working to ensure our policies, benefits, programs and teams are conducive to providing our lawyers and staff a healthy, successful workplace in order to deliver to our clients the highest-quality professional and personal service. We know Paulette will be integral to the Firm’s continued dedication to these efforts.”
Brown is nationally known for speaking out to eliminate bias in the U.S. legal system and advocating for the advancement of diverse lawyers, including women. At the start of her term as ABA President, Brown formed the ABA’s Diversity and Inclusion 360 Commission that examined the state of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, the judicial system and the ABA with the aim of formulating methods, policies, standards and practices to best advance diversity and inclusion. She was influential in the creation, passage and implementation of ABA Resolution 113, which aims to promote diversity within law firms and urges clients to expand opportunities for diverse lawyers.
Locke Lord partners with organizations that positively impact communities in which it does business. This year marks the fifth consecutive year a Locke Lord lawyer has taken part in the Fellows Program for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, which identifies, trains and advances the next generation of leaders in the legal profession. In addition, the Firm’s lawyers are members of a number of diversity-related organizations, including the Hispanic National Bar Association, Mexican American Bar Foundation, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, National Association of Muslim Lawyers, Center for Women in Law, Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law, Just the Beginning, Dallas Asian American Bar Association, Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, and Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association, to name just a few