Duane Morris has appointed Susan A Laws (pictured) to the firm’s five-member Executive Committee.
Laws, the co-managing partner of the firm’s London office, focuses her corporate practice on business law and finance, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and computer law. She is the first Duane Morris Executive Committee member from an office outside of the United States.
Laws replaces Sheila Hollis, partner and chair of the firm’s Washington, DC office. Hollis, a leading energy lawyer, served on the Executive Committee for more than 10 years.
“Susan is a superb lawyer and a natural leader, and her appointment to the Executive Committee reflects Duane Morris’ commitment to our international presence and also the success of our female leadership,” says John J Soroko, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Duane Morris.
Laws joined Duane Morris in 2000 upon the merger of her former firm, Geisler & Laws, into Duane Morris to launch the firm’s London office. Together with partner Alex Geisler, she has since been co-head of the London office. She is a frequent lecturer on the topic of mergers and acquisitions, and she is one of the few solicitors in the UK to hold a master’s degree in business administration. Laws is a 1977 graduate of Southampton University and an MBA graduate of Nottingham Law School.
Laws is one of many Duane Morris female partners and associates who hold leadership positions in the firm and in the greater legal business community. “Our ambition is to be a ‘destination firm’ for talented women in the law,” Soroko says. “Susan is just one example of our great female leaders.”
