Crowell & Moring Lawyers Named to Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s 2022 Fellows and Pathfinder Programs

Washington – February 28, 2022: Crowell & Moring is pleased to announce that counsel Monty Cooper has been selected as a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s 2022 class of Fellows. In addition, associate Andrea Charles and counsel Kayvan M. Ghaffari have been named to the LCLD 2022 class of Pathfinders.

“We are thrilled that Monty, Andrea, and Kayvan will have the opportunity to participate in LCLD’s outstanding  leadership development programs, which will afford them a unique opportunity to enhance their leadership and relationship building skills, together with their peer in-house lawyers from across the country,” said Ellen Dwyer, chair of the firm’s executive committee and chair of the LCLD Board. “Through participation in these programs, our lawyers have developed many of the skills needed to advance within the firm and enduring relationships with diverse lawyers from many of our own clients.  We are proud to deepen our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in partnership with LCLD.”

Celebrating 11 years, the LCLD Fellows program has launched its participants into chief legal positions. More than 50 alumni of the program have become general counsel, managing partners or judges, or have opened their own firms since their fellowship year. The Pathfinder Program similarly provides participants with practical tools for developing and leveraging internal professional networks, foundational leadership skills, and an understanding of career development strategies.

Cooper is one of 426 Fellows named to the 2022 class. His practice focuses on product liability, environmental, and complex civil litigation. He has litigated tort and contract cases across the country, advising clients in high-exposure litigation in numerous venues. He has over a decade’s worth of experience in all phases of litigation, from discovery, to motion practice, to trial work (including first-chair jury and bench trial experience), to appellate advocacy.

In her practice, Charles focuses on counseling and representing corporate and individual clients in regulatory enforcement actions, government investigations, white collar criminal defense matters, and internal investigations. She counsels large companies in risk-assessment and regulatory compliance, as well as individual clients on complex civil litigation issues. Charles also focuses on a broad spectrum of complex commercial, consumer, and retail litigation, including those involving class actions and multi-district litigation.

Ghaffari’s practice focuses on technology-related litigation involving cybersecurity and digital crimes, competition issues, copyright, trademark, and patent disputes, and complex commercial matters. He has handled numerous disputes involving cybersecurity technologies, cybercrime, fraud and hacking and  has litigated numerous Lanham Act, false advertising, unfair competition, and trade disparagement claims.

Crowell & Moring is a longstanding member of LCLD, and over the past decade has sponsored women and diverse partners, counsel, associates, and summer associates in a variety of pipeline programs that have provided leadership training and development. In addition to the Fellows and Pathfinder programs, the firm is a regular participant in LCLD’s 1L Scholars and Success in Law School Mentoring programs.

About The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

The Leadership Council on Legal Diversity is an organization of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners—the leadership of the profession—who have pledged themselves, through our Leaders at the Front initiative and other means, to creating a truly diverse U.S. legal profession. Our action programs are designed to attract, inspire, and nurture the talent in society and within our organizations, thereby helping a new and more diverse generation of attorneys ascend to positions of leadership. By producing tangible results in our institutions, we work to promote inclusiveness in our organizations, our circles of influence, and our society, with the ultimate goal of building a more equitable and diverse legal profession.