New York City Bar Association Announces 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award Honorees
The New York City Bar Association will present its 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Champion Awards at its Diversity and Inclusion Celebration Dinner on June 26 to Juan Arteaga, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP, and Lisa Linsky, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP.
The award recognizes the critical role individual attorneys have played in initiating and sustaining change within their organizations and the overall New York legal community. The award recipients embody the City Bar’s Statement of Diversity Principles, which defines diversity as an inclusive concept, encompassing race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religion, nationality, age, disability and marital and parental status. The City Bar has recognized diversity and inclusion champions since the award was created in 2006.
“This year’s Champion Award recipients are true leaders in diversity and inclusion,” said Roger Juan Maldonado, President of the New York City Bar Association. “Juan and Lisa’s contributions to the legal community have included work with civic organizations as well as extensive work within their own firms to increase opportunities for people of color and LGBTQ people.”
Deborah Martin Owens, Executive Director of the City Bar’s Office for Diversity & Inclusion, added, “This feels like a particularly important year for celebrating champions of diversity and inclusion. In addition to recognizing the amazing contributions of our 2019 Champions, this year also marks the 25th anniversary of our Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program, which places diverse New York City public high school students with legal employers for the summer. We’re proud to continue our efforts at enhancing the diversity of the legal profession at all levels of the pipeline.”
Following is information on the 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award winners:
Juan Arteaga – Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP
Juan A. Arteaga is an experienced antitrust and white collar attorney with significant litigation and trial experience. He is a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, where he led and oversaw various high-profile civil and criminal investigations and litigation.
As the office’s hiring partner, he has helped recruit a number of lateral female and diverse associates and counsel. Arteaga has also established a strong partnership between Crowell and Legal Outreach and has created a successful speaker series that enables the New York office’s employees to discuss important workplace topics, such as unconscious bias and strategies for ensuring that men in senior positions serve as effective mentors and sponsors for women in the #MeToo era.
Arteaga has received numerous awards for his pro bono work and civic involvement from organizations such as the New York Legal Aid Society, Legal Outreach, Her Justice, Puerto Rican Bar Association, and LatinoJustice. In addition to making time for pro bono work, Juan has made it a priority to mentor younger attorneys and law students of all backgrounds.
Lisa Linsky – Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Lisa A. Linsky is a partner in the international law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP. Linsky’s practice focuses on complex litigation, including commercial, product liability, trusts and estates, and LGBTQ civil rights litigation. Her practice also entails conducting investigations involving a diverse range of topics including employment-related, sexual harassment, and child abuse claims.
In 2015, Linsky co-led a team of McDermott lawyers that wrote an amicus brief that was submitted to the United States Supreme Court in the Obergefell consolidated marriage cases.
Linsky was McDermott’s first partner-in-charge of Firm-wide Diversity and partner-in-charge of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Diversity and Inclusion. She created and chaired the firm-wide LGBT Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and currently serves on the Firm’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors for New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center, and is now a member of its Executive Committee. In recognition of her work promoting diversity, inclusion, and equality, Linsky has received several awards from the New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the New York Law Journal, in addition to receiving the City Bar’s 2013 Arthur S. Leonard Award.
The full bios of the recipients and more information about the award and the Celebration Dinner can be found on the City Bar’s website.
About the Association
The New York City Bar Association, since its founding in 1870, has been dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of the legal profession, promoting reform of the law and access to justice, and providing service to the profession and the public. The Association, through its 24,000 members, continues to work for political, legal and social reform, while implementing innovative means to help the disadvantaged. Protecting the public’s welfare remains one of the Association’s highest priorities. www.nycbar.org
