The African-American Managing Partners Network has honored McGuireWoods partner Ava Lias-Booker as its “Managing Partner of the Year,” recognizing the six years she led the firm’s Baltimore office. She received the award on Aug. 1 at the Seventh Annual African-American Managing Partners & General Counsel Dinner during the National Bar Association’s 92nd Annual Convention in Toronto, Canada.
The award is presented annually to an African-American lawyer who serves or has previously served as managing partner of an Am Law 200 law firm or one of its offices. Lias-Booker — who was managing partner of McGuireWoods’ Baltimore office from 2010 to 2016 — chairs the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee, serves on its seven-member Associates Committee, and leads its Baltimore litigation practice. She also serves on the boards of visitors for Duke University School of Law and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors.
“I am honored to be recognized by this esteemed group of lawyers whose leadership within their firms and the legal profession is an inspiration to the next generation of African-American lawyers,” said Lias-Booker, whose contributions to the Maryland legal community were recently honored by the Black Law Students Association at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
She is ranked in the prestigious 2017 Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business guide; the Maryland State Bar Association’s Litigation Section named her 2016 “Litigator of the Year”; and The Daily Record inducted her into its Circle of Excellence, an honor bestowed on three-time honorees for its list of Maryland’s Top 100 Women.