Allegheny County bar group fills post on gender, diversity
-
Alysia Mercedes Keating
Share with others:
The Allegheny County Bar Association is combining its gender and diversity initiatives, and has named a new director to oversee both.
Alysia Mercedes Keating, 43, a lawyer who formerly handled securities, mergers and acquisition deals for firms in New York City and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., became director of diversity and gender equality on Thursday.
The bar association's Institute for Gender Equality launched in 2009 and until now has been run on a contract basis by Linda Hernandez, a lawyer with Downtown firm Dickie McCamey & Chilcote. The diversity initiative was formerly overseen by Gene Harris, a lawyer whose consulting company specializes in human resources issues.
After seven years away from the practice of law, during which her family relocated to Pittsburgh and she focused on raising her three children, Ms. Keating said she was ready to return to work when she stumbled on a notice about the job online. "It was something of great interest to me. I'm a woman, and I'm Hispanic. I really wanted to learn more about it."
Besides her perspective as a female and a minority, Ms. Keating also brings the experience of working in prominent, urban law firms. She was a shareholder when she left the Fort Lauderdale office of Akerman Senterfitt and before that, an associate in New York of Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Baker & McKenzie.
"I was a lawyer in large firms and a shareholder in a large firm," she said. "So I understand the financial concerns and obligations law firms have to deal with, and ... economics and politics, which are some of the things that drive what firms do when it comes to gender equality issues."
Further, "I've been a working parent. I know what it's like to find a good work-life balance particularly in a law firm setting."
First Published September 6, 2011 12:00 am
