Ex-Big Firm Attorneys Form First Black Women-Owned Communications Law Practice
In a nation containing over one million attorneys with less than ten percent being minority, three black women lawyers have decided to strike it on their own and open a bi-coastal firm focusing on communications and entertainment law work. The firm has carved out a niche to meet the needs of small companies seeking affordable legal representation and of corporations looking for minority outside counsel
WASHINGTON, DC (PRWEB) July 7, 2005 -- Former Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLC
communications associate Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt opened The Ghatt Law Group LLC in
June 2005. The firm will become the first black women owned communications law
firm in the country.
Ghatt has formed strategic partnerships with
Nicolaine Lazarre, an ex- Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP corporate associate who
is based in New York city and Fatima Fofana, the Los Angeles-based attorney who
once worked on multi-million dollar deals at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
Together, the three have over two decades of media and policy experience and a
history representing Fortune 500 companies.
“The legal field is run by
white men in their 50s” principal founder Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt said. “Because
there are still barriers out there for minorities and women trying to succeed in
the profession, it is almost by necessity more so than choice that more of us
are striking on our own and opening our own firms.”
Before joining
forces to create the new firm, the three had past school and work relationships.
Jeneba Ghatt was Nicolaine Lazarre’s instructor when Lazarre was a student at
Georgetown University Law Center’s acclaimed in-school clinic, the Institute for
Public Representation, and Ghatt was a master of law graduate fellow and staff
attorney at the clinic. Fofana and Ghatt were students together at the
University of Maryland and later the Catholic University of America School of
Law where both published articles in the school’s communications law journal,
CommLaw Conspectus.
“I was speaking with a black female law student
recently who asked why there weren’t many black women owned law firms. I didn’t
really have a good answer for her then” Fofana said. “It only made sense to do
something about that.”
The Ghatt Law Group joins the less than 500
minority or women-owned law firms in the country. The firm’s opening comes at a
time when more and more corporations are trying to be responsive and meet the
needs of their customers by, in part, hiring more minority outside counsel. When
they can’t be found at majority-owned law firms, companies are looking to
minority-owned firms, and are particularly drawn to those housing lawyers
trained by the highly respected major law firms.
The group advises small
businesses, corporations and individuals on start-up, communications, corporate
securities, commercial and entertainment law matters.
About The Ghatt
Law Group LLC
The Ghatt Law Group is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland
at 2 Wisconsin Circle, Suite 700 - #127, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815 (phone:
240-235-5028) with offices in Los Angeles and Manhattan. For more information,
please visit http://lawgroup.ghatt.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb258737.htm