Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Page 3
Jane Barrett Named to Diversity Committee by New ABA President
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
Veteran Los Angeles litigator Jane Barrett has been named to the board of the American Bar Association’s Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity by new ABA President Robert Grey Jr., Barrett’s firm said yesterday.
Barrett, the first woman ever to sit on the ABA Board of Governors, was not available yesterday for comment. But the managing partner of the Century City office of Piper Rudnick LLP, where Barrett has been a partner for the past two years, hailed the selection.
“We are pleased that the ABA has recognized Jane’s qualities as an attorney and her commitment to the cause of greater diversity in the legal profession,” Jeffrey Rosenfeld said in a statement. “Her diligent efforts are one aspect of the firm’s commitment to this noble work.”
Rosenfeld cited Piper Rudnick’s five-year initiative to improve diversity and advance the position of women and minorities within the firm. Former Northwestern University Law School Dean of Students Theresa Cropper was recently appointed the firm’s new director of diversity.
The ABA Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity was created in 2001 to promote racial and ethnic diversity as a priority issue for the organization.
Barrett is an experienced litigator in a number of fields, including intellectual property, labor and employment, and general business litigation. She has represented Microsoft Corp. in intellectual property, unfair competition, and commercial disputes and for many years has represented Southwest Airlines in a broad range of intellectual property and labor matters.
She joined Piper Rudnick after Preston Gates & Ellis closed its Los Angeles office, of which Barrett was managing partner, in 2002. She had joined Preston Gates from Arter & Hadden.
Barrett began her legal career at the venerable Los Angeles firm of Lawler, Felix & Hall in 1972 and eventually became managing partner. The firm merged into Cleveland-based Arter & Hadden in 1990.
The Lawler, Felix & Hall name was retired in 1993, and Barrett left Arter & Hadden the following year.
Copyright 2004, Metropolitan News Company