Savoy magazine, a leading African American business, culture and lifestyle publication, named McGuireWoods Chairman Jonathan Harmon and partners Ava Lias-Booker and Greg Kilpatrick to its “2022 Most Influential Black Lawyers” list. Featured in the magazine’s winter edition, the list honors top attorneys from leading national law firms and corporate counsel from Fortune 1,000 companies who are widely recognized for professionalism, protection of rights and community service.
Harmon is one of the only African American chairs of an Am Law 100 law firm and an accomplished trial lawyer. He represents Fortune 500 companies — including some of the largest U.S. financial institutions, telecommunications, and energy giants, and leading automotive, food and product manufacturers — in bet-the-company litigation across the country. He also is a national voice and influential leader on diversity and inclusion in legal and business communities.
Lias-Booker leads McGuireWoods’ Baltimore litigation practice and has three decades of first-chair trial experience representing businesses in complex commercial and civil litigation. She chairs the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and serves on the Diversity Action Council and Associates Committee. She also has taken the lead in establishing partnerships with McGuireWoods clients to collaborate on diversity and inclusion initiatives affecting their businesses and the legal profession. She is a former managing partner of McGuireWoods’ Baltimore office.
Kilpatrick, chair of the firm’s Securities & Capital Markets Department, focuses on private equity, securities offerings, and mergers and acquisitions matters for clients in the banking, retail, technology and manufacturing industries. He co-leads McGuireWoods’ Black Professionals in Private Equity & Finance Initiative, which brings together professionals from across the financial services sector to network, share ideas and promote change in the industry.