The New York City Bar Association announced on July 23 that Hofstra Law alumna Deborah Martin Owens ’04 has joined the organization as Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusion.
Owens came to the City Bar from the New York office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, where she focused on complex commercial litigation. She is the vice chair of the board for the Women’s City Club of New York and has held leadership positions in various organizations, including the Friends of Island Academy, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the National Bar Association. Among her awards, she is an inaugural recipient of the Shirley Stewart Farmer Women of Excellence Award given by the NAACP Mid-Manhattan Branch, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and the National Association of Women Judges.
“We are very pleased to welcome Deborah to the City Bar, and we look forward to her leadership on our diversity and inclusion activities,” said City Bar Executive Director Bret Parker in the announcement. “While there’s much work to do, it’s a time of great excitement and momentum for us and the legal community in this area, with more and more law firms, in-house legal departments and other organizations recognizing how important this is. We think Deborah’s background is a great fit for us moving forward.”
The City Bar’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion tracks the progress of more than 140 signatory law firms and law departments on key diversity representation metrics, and reports its findings to the public regularly in a Diversity Benchmarking Report. The office also runs a pipeline initiative that supports high school, college and law students in developing necessary professional skills and gaining exposure to the legal profession.
Read the full announcement on the New York City Bar Association website.
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