McGuireWoods Selects 2025 LCLD Fellow and Pathfinders
Firm Sponsors Dallas Women Lawyers Association, Led by Chelsea Hilliard
McGuireWoods’ Tyra Pearson Profiled in 2024 Chambers Diversity Report
McGuireWoods’ George Keith Martin Receives VCIC Humanitarian Award
OUR INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY
McGuireWoods has a history of hiring, developing, promoting and retaining talented lawyers, including lawyers of color, women and LGBTQ lawyers, and veterans. Continually establishing new initiatives and enhancing existing efforts, we focus on meaningful support for our diverse lawyers in their careers. The firm’s lawyer networks, which are open to all, are an example of how we support our attorneys in building communities within the firm.
LEADING THE WAY
Two very active groups are charged with focusing on diversity and inclusion: the Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Diversity Action Council.
Established in 2006, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee — chaired by Atlanta partner Ken Neighbors — focuses on identifying, attracting, and retaining diverse talent. The D&I Committee also helps incorporate inclusiveness in our professional development, supports retention through lawyer networks, strengthens our marketing and business development opportunities, and ensures the firm is well represented at elite events and conferences.
Formed in 2013, the Diversity Action Council is an ad hoc committee led by firm managing partner Tracy Walker that includes representative members of the firm’s senior legal management team and key business professionals including the chief operating officer. It supports the firm’s embrace of an inclusive culture supported by our core values with programming and initiatives that promote the wellbeing and success of all McGuireWoods associates on their path to partnership.
Such engagement and accountability, buttressed by tailored programs and training, has resulted in steady progress.
D&I ADVANCES
A key focus of the firm’s strategic plan, diversity and inclusion are essential to how we do business, informing how we RECRUIT, RETAIN, and PROMOTE lawyers to serve our clients. Our efforts are also supported by partnerships with clients and community members committed to advancing diversity in the legal profession. Working together, we can build a synergistic whole greater than the sum of its parts. That’s diversity in action.
| ASSOCIATE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS | The Firm’s associate leadership programs equip top-performing associates, including female associates, associates of color and LGBTQ+ associates with the tools and leadership skills deemed essential to practice development and advancement to partnership. |
| LCLD FOUNDER | Supporting Leadership Council on Legal Diversity programs. |
| AFFINITY GROUP DIRECTORY | Strengthening our community by connecting our client service teams with affinity group lawyers with specific experience. |
| WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP | The Women’s Leadership Development Forum helps our senior associates develop the networking and client service skills needed to advance in their careers. |
| CLIENT PARTNERING | Working with firm clients who share our passion for diversity and inclusion. |
| BAR ASSOCIATIONS | Providing financial and leadership support for participation in voluntary bar associations. |
D&I FEATURES
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
Development Forum
With the goal of enhancing women senior associates’ leadership skills, McGuireWoods held its 12th Women’s Leadership Development Forum (WLDF) May 2-3, 2024, at the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
The associate-participants included Nicole M. Allaband, Jessica Barrera, Emily G. Blair, Laura J. Cooley, Megan Italiano, Emily Erb Kelley, Laura Grace Mezher, Alice O’Donovan, Sarah Y. Oh, Anne Curtis Saunders, Samantha E. Aparicio Wallace, Kelly A. Warlich, Brooke A. Weedon and Madison K. B. Wyche.
Women Lawyers Network co-chairs Ali Baiardo and Elaine Sanderlin Ryan opened the two-day forum with a breakfast presentation, sharing stories and lessons from their individual career journeys. Afterward, a dozen McGuireWoods women partners joined the group for an “Ask Anything” dinner, to provide perspectives on life as a partner at the firm.
After breakfast on the second day with firm managing partner J. Tracy Walker IV, participants enjoyed a lunchtime panel featuring insights from WLDF alums — partners Elissa N. Baur, Anna C. Horevay, Melissa O. Martinez and Ashley B. Matthews.
ZONING AND
Segregation in Virginia
In 2022, McGuireWoods real estate and zoning lawyers, land use planners and government relations consultants released Part 2 of an in-depth study of zoning laws and housing segregation in Virginia, outlining specific policy reforms to eliminate discriminatory housing policies that perpetuate racial disparities.
The report, “Zoning and Segregation in Virginia: Part 2 — Expanding Housing Choices for the Future of Virginia,” builds on McGuireWoods’ previous study documenting how zoning was used as a tool to create segregated housing patterns that endure long after the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited racial discrimination.
The recommendations in Part 2 focus on changes to Virginia’s planning and zoning laws at the local and state levels to increase housing choices, remove barriers to diverse neighborhoods and increase access to attainable housing.
The McGuireWoods team — led by Tysons real estate and land use partner Jonathan Rak and McGuireWoods Consulting senior advisor James Dyke — details the consequences of residential segregation and the positive outcomes the commonwealth can realize by ridding society of such segregation.
“The purpose of this report is to address the lack of racial integration in Virginia’s neighborhoods and to offer a collection of proposed solutions to this issue at the state and local levels,” Dyke said. “Our intent is not to assess blame or point fingers for past injustices, but rather to recommend specific steps that can be taken to eliminate the vestiges of discriminatory housing and zoning policies.”
The authors said zoning policies will play a major role in closing the significant wealth gap between Black and white Americans and called for “direct and intentional action” by state and local governments and the private sector.
For details, read “Zoning and Segregation in Virginia: Part 2 — Expanding Housing Choices for the Future of Virginia.”
BLACK PROFESSIONALS IN
Private Equity & Finance
In 2021, McGuireWoods launched an initiative to help Black private equity and finance professionals develop business opportunities and drive progress toward a more diverse and inclusive community.
The Black Professionals in Private Equity & Finance (BPE) initiative brings together professionals from across the financial services sector to network, share ideas and promote change in the industry. BPE features panel discussions and roundtables with leaders in the financial services sector and an online series highlighting trailblazers and rising stars.
McGuireWoods partners Greg Kilpatrick, chair of the Securities & Capital Markets Department, and Gerald V. Thomas II, chair of the Tax & Employee Benefits Department, lead the initiative.
“Access to capital is a persistent challenge for Black-owned businesses and McGuireWoods wants to be part of the solution,” Kilpatrick said. “We believe that increasing diversity in private equity and finance will result in more capital flowing to Black and other minority-owned businesses.”
“McGuireWoods’ deal work and innovations distinguish the firm as a leader in private equity and finance,” Thomas added. “This initiative will build on that success by providing a platform for Black private equity and finance professionals to expand their relationships and opportunities.”
