Katten has announced that partner Johnjerica Hodge has been named a 2023 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow. Designed for lawyers with eight to 15 years of experience, this landmark intensive year-long professional development program connects high-potential attorneys with leading general counsel, managing partners and their peers for mentoring and career guidance.

“Johnjerica is an exceptional attorney — definitely someone to watch as she progresses in her career. Not only is she an emerging leader in the ESG space, but she is also deeply engaged in making the legal profession more inclusive as proven by her role as co-chair of Katten’s Black Attorneys Affinity Group,” said Chief Diversity Partner Leslie Minier. “The Fellows program offers an opportunity for Johnjerica to network with legal leaders and expand her leadership skills.”

Selected by the general counsel and managing partners at LCLD member corporations and law firms, the LCLD Fellows participate in training sessions and have opportunities to interact with key legal and business leaders of large US corporations, as well as managing partners from the country’s most prestigious law firms.

See related article: Katten Launches New Practice Focused on ESG Risk and Investigations

Hodge leads Katten’s ESG Risk and Investigations practice with partner India Williams, leveraging their considerable experience in environmental, social and governance (ESG), corporate compliance and internal investigations to further build on the firm’s capabilities in the ESG space, which focuses on adopting environmental and social policies that promote sustainability and mitigate risk in a manner that creates long-term value for clients and investors.

She counsels companies across industries on evaluating and incorporating ESG values into their internal and external operations and helps her clients address the myriad of white collar and compliance needs related to the ESG sector. Hodge is co-authoring a book on ESG slated to be published this year and has received certificates from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania after completing programs on “ESG Risks and Opportunities” and “ESG and Social Activism” as well as from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law on “Sustainable Capitalism and ESG.”

Over the years, the LCLD Fellows program has built a reputation for helping to launch participants into top legal positions, with a substantial number of Fellows alumni becoming leaders within their organizations.

“Since its inception in 2011, the LCLD Fellows program has produced some of the most impactful leaders in our industry,” said LCLD President Robert J. Grey Jr.

LCLD 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 its Leaders at the Front initiative and other means, to creating a truly diverse US legal profession.

Source: Katten