Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Thursday, January 25, 2007

 

Page 3

 

Litigator Cites Kaye Scholer’s Commitment to Community as a Reason for Move

 

By TINA BAY, Staff Writer

 

Former Folger, Levin & Kahn partner Dominique R. Shelton has moved to the Los Angeles office of Kaye Scholer.

Shelton, the immediate past president of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, made the move because Kaye Scholer is an “excellent law firm that’s committed to the community,” she said yesterday.

The 39-year-old litigator, a lifetime member of both California Women Lawyers and the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, told the MetNews she was not only excited about taking her practice to a national and international platform through her new firm—Folger Levin only has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco—but in deepening her contribution to the community with Kaye Scholer’s support.

“Community involvement has been a core part of my practice from the very first day I became a lawyer,” she said. “I can’t think of a time when I didn’t have some involvement or played some role with either pro bono or community-based work.”

Shelton, who started her new job as counsel in Kaye Scholer’s litigation department on Monday, said she is intent on being the best lawyer she can be in her focus areas of intellectual property, entertainment and media, antitrust and complex commercial matters.

But while pursuing her career, she added, she remains committed to mentoring individuals and helping to promote diversity in society.

She said will continue serving as an active a member of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s drawing committee, which oversees all of the institution’s works on paper, because she is passionate about supporting local artists and young and emerging talent across the nation.

A supporting donor for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Los Angeles, which seeks to help disadvantaged children through one-to-one mentoring relationships, Shelton added that she is “exploring the possibility” of taking on a deeper role in that organization.

With respect to the legal profession, she said that ever since her involvement in WLALA, she has been actively involved in mentoring young women, particularly those of color, who are beginning their careers.

“It’s very important that the legal community reflect the community at large,” Shelton remarked.

“There are a lot of young women of color in the pipeline” and it was important “to encourage them to pursue what they want to do and not be deterred,” she said, noting that WLALA’s first African American president, Greer C. Bosworth, was one of her own mentors.

Bosworth commented that Shelton “excelled and performed remarkably well while maintaining a growing practice” in both her roles as WLALA president and a long-term board member of Black Women Lawyers from 1997-2002.

“She’s a genuinely nice person with an exorbitant amount of energy, and an extremely talented attorney,” she added.

Michael Fernhoff, managing partner of Kaye Scholer’s local office, emphasized that Shelton was not only a community-minded individual but a “top quality litigator” whose expertise in areas like intellectual property and antitrust further enriches the firm’s already strong litigation practice.

Shelton’s experience includes representing a video-on-demand channel in intellectual property disputes and a major distributor of electronic components in trademark infringement matters.

The attorney has been identified as a top young lawyer and litigator in past and recent publications, and was recognized in 1996 by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles for her pro bono work.

Shelton began her legal career at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton and moved in 1994 to a now-defunct law firm before transitioning to Folger Levin, where she became a partner in 2001.

A Los Angeles native, she graduated from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in French civilization and international relations.

She earned her law degree in 1991 from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was the notes editor for its legal ethics journal, and was admitted to the State Bar in 1992.

 

Copyright 2007, Metropolitan News Company