2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER McGuireWoods

McGuireWoods, home to over 900 attorneys in 21 offices worldwide, is a full-service firm that provides legal and public affairs solutions to corporate, individual, and nonprofit clients across a range of industries including banking and financial services, energy, healthcare, and private equity.

McGuireWoods’ Mergers

The firm’s history dates back to 1834 in Charlottesville, Virginia, with the founding of Egbert R. Watson’s law practice. Since then, the firm has strategically expanded from coast to coast and overseas—largely via mergers. In the past decade, McGuireWoods has joined North Carolina firm Helms Mullins & Wicker, U.K. firm Grundberg Mocatta Rakison, Texas-based Nickens Keeton Lawless Farrell & Flack, and litigation boutique Integer Law Corp. 

Multiple Legal Facets

McGuireWoods regularly serves clients across banking and financial services, energy, healthcare, private equity, and other industries. In addition to its skillful lawyers who handle corporate transactions, high-stakes disputes, and complex regulatory and compliance matters, the professionals in its wholly-owned affiliate, McGuireWoods Consulting, provide a unique combination of state and federal government relations prowess on the basis of their infrastructure, economic development, and advocacy expertise. 

On the labor and employment front, the firm has experience working on matters from affirmative action and immigration law to labor relations, litigation, and noncompetes. The firm tackles thousands of employment-related matters yearly. Its employment litigators leverage their experience in discrimination, disability, ERISA, negligent hiring and supervision, OSHA, retaliation, WARN, whistleblower claims, and other matters.

The firm may be best known for its healthcare experience. The firm’s 60 Healthcare practice lawyers often partner with other experts in the firm, including those at McGuireWoods Consulting, to tackle complex issues facing clients. The firm has a diverse roster of clients, ranging from venture capital firms and lenders to ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, pharmacies, and medical trade associations.

Diversity & Inclusion Strides

McGuireWoods attorneys rely on engagement and accountability, in addition to tailored programs and training, to make steady progress in DEI. The firm has two groups focusing on diversity and inclusion, the Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Diversity Action Council. The former focuses on identifying, attracting, and retaining diverse talent, as well as incorporating inclusiveness in the firm’s professional development and mentorship offerings. The latter is dedicated to advancing the firm’s strategic D&I goals, holding firm leadership accountable for the promotion and development of diverse attorneys and helping to ensure all firm resources are effectively deployed to further their careers.

• Represented Cynthia and Frederick Warmbier when they sued North Korea for having “brutally tortured and murdered” their son, Otto Warmbier. In 2018, a federal court ordered North Korea to pay the Warmbiers over $500 million.
• Represented Ryan Collins in Collins v. Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Collins, that the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment does not permit a police officer to enter the curtilage of a home without a warrant.
• Represented human trafficking survivor Kendra Ross. In 2018, she was awarded an almost $8 million judgment, the largest civil single-plaintiff human-trafficking award in U.S. history, in the suit she brought against the nationwide regimented cult the Value Creators Inc. (formerly known as the United Nation of Islam).
• Advised Dominion Energy in its agreement to sell a 50% noncontrolling interest in the historic Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project, the largest offshore wind farm in the United States and the first installed in federal waters, through the formation of a partnership with Stonepeak, a leading global infrastructure investor.

• Client Service A-Team, 2024—BTI Consulting Group
• Litigation Powerhouse, 2024—BTI Consulting Group
• Mansfield Certification Plus, 2023—Diversity Lab
• Associate Satisfaction A-Listers, 2022—BTI Consulting Group
• Corporate Pro Bono Partner Award, 2022—Pro Bono Institute