Lowenstein Sandler, as part of its close collaboration with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), has selected two of its lawyers to participate in the organization’s prestigious pipeline programs.
Chandra K. Shih, a Palo Alto-based partner in the firm’s Emerging Companies & Venture Capital (fka, The Tech Group) and a member of the Seed Stage Investing & Startups and Venture Capital & Tech M&A practices, will represent Lowenstein in the 2021 LCLD Fellows Program, a landmark initiative designed for diverse, high-potential, mid-career attorneys at LCLD member organizations. The goal of this program is to provide Fellows with professional and personal development opportunities, leadership training, relationship-building opportunities, and access to LCLD members (including managing partners and general counsel).
Nick Samedi, New Jersey- and New York-based counsel in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate groups, will be a member of the 2021 LCLD class of Pathfinders, a program designed for diverse, high-potential attorneys at LCLD member organizations. This program aims to equip participants with practical tools for developing and leveraging internal professional networks through relationship-building and foundational leadership skills, along with an understanding of career development strategies applicable to both in-house and law firm practice.
Shih works with growth-stage and early-stage startups and the venture firms and other angel and strategic investors who fund them. She provides legal and strategic advice to founders, investors, and boards on corporate governance matters, debt and equity financings, and mergers and acquisitions. Shih also provides general legal and strategic guidance through all phases of her startup clients’ life cycles, from formation to exit and everything in between.
Samedi is a skilled transactional attorney experienced in buy- and sell-side public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other complex transactional matters. He also negotiates and closes refinancing, restructuring, securities offering, and private investment transactions. Samedi’s clients range from entrepreneurs and privately and publicly held companies to growth-stage technology ventures and family-owned businesses.
“Both Chandra and Nick are active participants in Lowenstein’s Diversity Leadership Network. They will bring valuable perspectives to their respective LCLD programs, and we look forward to seeing how they will share with us what they learn through LCLD,” says Gary M. Wingens, the firm’s Chair and Managing Partner. “We credit a great deal of Lowenstein’s ongoing success to the continued and mindful cultivation of a culture that welcomes and encourages the diversity of our people. Our work with LCLD helps us to keep improving.”
Founded in 2009, LCLD is a growing organization of more than 350 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who are personally committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive legal profession.
Last year, Lowenstein selected H. Gregory Baker, partner in the White Collar Criminal Defense and Securities Litigation groups, to participate in the 2020 LCLD Fellows program, and Craig Dashiell of the Business Litigation and Class Action Litigation groups was chosen to join the 2020 Pathfinders Program.
Lowenstein also participates in LCLD’s 1L LCLD’s Scholars Program, which provides diverse first-year law students with valuable professional experiences, while introducing them to the value of relationships and network-building.
These initiatives complement the firm’s other commitments to diversity and inclusion, such as the Lowenstein Sandler LS Scholars Program, which offers paid summer associate positions and scholarships to promising, diverse first-year law students, and employee resource groups such as the Diversity Leadership Network; the LGBTQ+ Alliance, which advocates on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community inside and outside the firm; and the Women’s Initiative Network, a grassroots program that supports and empowers women attorneys to achieve professional and personal success.
Lowenstein Sandler was named an LCLD 2020 Compass Award winner for its continued commitment to building more diverse organizations and a more inclusive legal profession. In 2019, Wingens received the Compass Award for his participation in and support of LCLD’s mission and programs.
About Lowenstein Sandler LLP
Lowenstein Sandler is a national law firm with over 350 lawyers based in New York, Palo Alto, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington, D.C. The firm represents leaders in virtually every sector of the global economy, with particular emphasis on investment funds, life sciences, and technology. Recognized for its entrepreneurial spirit and high standard of client service, the firm is committed to the interests of its clients, colleagues, and communities.
