Crowell & Moring's Wilma Lewis Elected to American Arbitration Association Board of Directors

Washington, D.C. - May 4, 2007: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that partner Wilma A. Lewis was elected to the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) Board of Directors at its annual meeting held in New York on April 30, 2007. Lewis was one of six distinguished business and legal professionals to be named to the board. AAA is a not-for-profit, public service organization and the world's leading provider of conflict management and dispute resolution services.

A partner in the firm’s Litigation Group, Lewis has extensive litigation experience at the federal trial and appellate levels, and focuses her practice on complex civil litigation, including class actions as well as internal investigations. Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, she served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia — the first woman appointed by the President to serve in that capacity. During her tenure from January 1998 to April 2001, she led the largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the country, with responsibility for most federal and local criminal investigations and prosecutions, and most federal civil proceedings on behalf of the United States in the Nation’s Capital. From April 1995 to January 1998, she served as Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior — the first African-American to hold that position — where she oversaw investigative and audit activities designed to ferret out fraud, waste and mismanagement in Department of the Interior programs and operations. Her public service also included her tenure as Associate Solicitor for the Division of General Law at the U.S. Department of the Interior (1993-1995). The recipient of numerous commendations and awards, Lewis is also the former Chairman of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics.

Lewis was elected to the AAA's Board of Directors with five other distinguished business and legal professionals including: Gonzalo Biggs - partner at Figueroa & Valenzuela in Santiago, Chile; Harold Hongju Koh - Dean and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School; Carole Malinvaud - partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel in Paris; Tim Martin - Vice President & Special Counsel at Nexen; and Francis McGovern - professor of Law at Duke University School of Law.

Crowell & Moring LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 350 lawyers practicing in litigation, antitrust, government contracts, corporate, intellectual property and more than 40 other practice areas. More than two-thirds of the firm's lawyers regularly litigate disputes on behalf of domestic and international corporations, start-up businesses, and individuals. Crowell & Moring's extensive client work ranges from advising on one of the world's largest telecommunications mergers to representing governments and corporations on international arbitration matters. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in California, New York, London, and Brussels.