Outside Counsel Corner

Grace E. Speights
Partner
Morgan, Lewis, Bockius LLP

Grace E. Speights is a partner in Morgan, Lewis, Bockius LLP's labor and employment practice, managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office, chair of the complex employment litigation practice, and co-chair of the firm's diversity committee. Speights focuses her practice on counseling and defending clients in connection with employment discrimination claims, primarily those involving class claims, and on counseling clients regarding best practices for corporate diversity initiatives. She has been actively involved in recruitment and management activities at the firm. She has served as a member of the Washington Office Management Committee, and, when her practice was dedicated to general litigation, she served as the deputy assistant manager of the litigation section of the firm's Washington office. Prior to Morgan Lewis, Speights clerked for the late Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She is active in bar association activities and has served as an officer in several associations in the Washington, D.C. area. Speights received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from George Washington University National Law Center..

Barbara L. Johnson
Partner
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP

Barbara L. Johnson is a partner in the employment law department in Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker's Washington, D.C. office. She is a nationally known jury trial and class action lawyer representing employers. Johnson is chair of the firm's global pro bono and community involvement committee. Before joining Paul Hastings, she was a partner at Wickliff & Hall, a minority owned law firm in Houston, Texas. Prior, she served as in-house counsel for the Dow Chemical Company. Johnson is a frequent speaker at seminars sponsored by various organizations. She published "Everyone Has an Opinion: Blogging, Social Networking, News Reporting, and Employee Rights" (2010). Johnson received her B.S. from Hampton University and her J.D. from Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary.

Rossie E. Turman III
Partner
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Rossie E. Turman III is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where he concentrates in finance, principally representing investment banks, commercial banks and other financial institutions as lenders; and corporations, strategic investors and buyout funds as borrowers. Turman is active in training and mentoring new associates in the firm and provides leadership in the firm's efforts to expand its capacity to service clients engaged in cross-border transactions on the African continent. Turman has provided pro bono services for economic development activities, including representations for Abyssinian Development Corporation and the United Way in various transactions, and through his volunteer affiliations with Lawyers Alliance and the Community Law Office of Legal Aid. Turman received his B.S. from Arizona State University and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.

Allegra Lawrence-Hardy
Partner
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP

Allegra Lawrence-Hardy is a partner in Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP's litigation practice group and serves as co-leader of the business and commercial litigation team and is a member of the executive committee. She has extensive experience handling complex multi-party, class action, multi-jurisdictional commercial and labor and employment matters. She has successfully defended primarily Fortune 100 companies in trials, arbitrations, and alternative dispute resolution. As chair of Sutherland's diversity and inclusion committee, Lawrence-Hardy was the architect of Sutherland Scholars, a pre-law school "boot camp" for students from historically black colleges and universities. Prior to Sutherland, Lawrence-Hardy served as law clerk for the Honorable Susan H. Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In 2011, she was recognized as one of the National Bar Association and IMPACT's 2011 Nation's Best Advocates: 40 Lawyers Under 40. She also co-authored "Raising the Stakes: Effective Internal Whistle-Blowing Programs Are Essential in the Dodd-Frank Era" (2011). Lawrence-Hardy received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Spelman College and her J.D. from Yale Law School where she was a Coker Fellow.

Pallavi Mehta Wahi
Partner
K&L Gates LLP

Pallavi Mehta Wahi is a partner in the Seattle office of K&L Gates LLP, where she practices complex commercial litigation with an emphasis on corporate and intellectual property litigation. Wahi co-chairs K&L Gates' South Asia Initiative. She also chairs the Seattle office "Circle" group, an associate and peer mentoring group for associates and partners of color. She was a Rule 6 law clerk to the Honorable Commissioner William Ellis at the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I. Wahi is a current board member and past president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington (its first woman president) and a past trustee on the Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Board of Trustees. Wahi received her B.A. from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi, India in 1997. She also received her B.A. from the University of Cambridge Tripos Law, Magdalene College, Cambridge University in 1999—automatic conversion to an M.A. in 2003.

Tyree P. Jones, Jr.
Partner
Reed Smith LLP

Tyree P. Jones, Jr. is a partner at Reed Smith LLP, where he maintains a thriving national litigation practice and provides daily advice and counsel to clients on issues ranging from executive transitions in mergers and acquisitions; protection of proprietary information; employee classification; personnel policies; employment background screening; and workplace violence initiatives. He also is a member of Reed Smith's Records Management and E-Discovery Team. Representative clients include financial institutions such as Wells Fargo Bank N.A. and Washtenaw Mortgage Corporation; pharmaceutical distribution companies such as McKesson Corporation and Amersham Pharmacia Biotech; and real estate development and management companies such as the John Stewart Company and Madison Park Real Estate Investment Trust. He received his B.A. from Bowdoin College and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Angela J. Crawford
Partner
DLA Piper LLP (US)

Angela J. Crawford is a partner at DLA Piper LLP (US), where she concentrates her practice in complex commercial litigation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, white collar and product liability and advises clients in complex litigation matters, including breach of contract, product liability and fraud. Crawford is the hiring partner for the Tampa office. Crawford also serves as a member of DLA Piper's Leadership Alliance for Women (LAW) Steering Committee and is the LAW delegate for the Tampa office. She served as an Assistant US Attorney in Chicago, where she managed the investigation and handled the prosecution of fraud, immigration, narcotics, firearms and bank robbery cases. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, from 1998 to 1999. She is on the board of the Spring of Tampa Bay, Inc. and Earth Charter US. Crawford received her B.S. in finance from Indiana University and her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was the Coordinating Articles Editor of The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology.