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Crowell & Moring Managing Partner, Ellen Moran Dwyer, Named to Law360's "List of America's Most Innovative Managing Partners"

Firm News | 3 min read | 10.04.12

Washington, D.C. – October 4, 2012: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that managing partner, Ellen Moran Dwyer, has been named to Law360's "List of America's Most Innovative Managing Partners." According the publication's editor, the list features ten managing partners from across the country who, "adopted innovative approaches to law firm management during challenging economic times."

Law360's profile of Dwyer highlights her dedication to tackling, and helping improve, the industry-wide low rates of female and minority representation in the upper levels and leadership positions at firms. After reading a December 2010 Harvard Business Review report on the benefits of a sponsorship model written by Sylvia Ann Hewlett from the Center for Work-Life Policy explaining the benefits of a "sponsorship model," Dwyer told Law360, "We realized then that we needed much greater transparency as well as partner sponsors to communicate and teach our talented women how much we valued them as people and contributors to the firm."

To begin implementing the sponsorship model at Crowell & Moring, Dwyer assembled a strategic committee to lead the concept and create momentum. The firm also worked with Hewlett and her team to evaluate attorney engagement at the firm, and educated practice group leaders on general principles of sponsorship, and the roles of "sponsors" and "protégés" in particular. In the final stages of implementation, Dwyer and firm leaders launched a pilot sponsorship program with an initial group of 30 senior partners, including all members of the firm's management board, practice group heads, and influential equity partners with institutional clients, to be trained in the nuances of being a sponsor. Further, the training informs sponsors how to be cohorts of high potential partners, counsel, and associates, including significant numbers of women and attorneys of color, who will  receive in-depth coaching on maximizing their opportunities as  protégés.

Dwyer, who has been the firm's managing partner since 2008, is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Management Board. She is the former chair of both the firm's Promotions Committee and Lawyer Development Committee. Additionally, she maintains an active labor and employment practice representing employers in the full array of labor and employment matters, including class action and individual claims filed under federal and state anti-discrimination and related employment laws. 

In April 2012, Crowell & Moring was named a "Top Ten Family Friendly Firm for 2012" by Yale Law Women, a list that recognizes law firms for their leadership in developing and implementing family friendly practices and policies. The following month, the firm was awarded the 2012 Thomas L. Sager Award for the Western region by The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), in partnership with the California Minority Counsel Program (CMCP). Among other recent recognition for leadership in diversity, Crowell & Moring was named for the seventh consecutive year to MultiCultural Law Magazine's 2012 "Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity," and in June, the firm was among only 50 other law firms in the United States to meet the Women in Law Empowerment Forum's Gold Standard criteria for their 2012 Gold Standard Award Certification, which emphasize the leadership roles achieved by female equity partners. Additionally, in 2011, the firm received the CMCP's commitment to diversity "Drucilla Stender Ramey Law Firm Award."

In 2010, Crowell & Moring's chairman, Kent A. Gardiner, was also named to Law360's  "Innovative Managing Partner" list for his leadership of the firm's plaintiff's recovery litigation practice as well as his leadership of the firm's innovation in service through alternative fee arrangements. The related profile of Gardiner is posted here.

The Law360 "2012 America's Most Innovative Managing Partners" profile of Dwyer is available here.

Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with approximately 500 lawyers representing clients in litigation and arbitration, regulatory, and transactional matters. The firm is internationally recognized for its representation of Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation, as well as its ongoing commitment to pro bono service and diversity. The firm has offices in Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, Anchorage, London, and Brussels.

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