Benesch is pleased to announce that Partner Marisa T. Darden has been selected for the 2024 Class of Fellows of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) and Associates Sydney Allen and Amanda Ray have been chosen for the 2024 LCLD Pathfinders Program. The landmark programs were created by LCLD to identify, train and advance the next generation of leaders in the legal profession.
Founded in 2009, LCLD is a growing organization of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who are personally committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. The LCLD Fellows program, which has trained more than a thousand mid-career attorneys since 2011, is one of LCLD’s most important initiatives.
Marisa, a partner and chair of Benesch’s White Collar, Government Investigations & Regulatory Compliance Practice Group, is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and an accomplished trial lawyer. She provides guidance to companies and individuals facing investigations and criminal matters initiated by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, including allegations of wire and mail fraud and potential violations of state and federal law, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Outside of her practice, Marisa serves on the Board of Directors for Rainbow Babies & Children’s Foundation, College Now and the Northern District of Ohio Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and she is a previous recipient of the Crain’s Cleveland Women of Note Award.
Sydney focuses her practice on intellectual property, technology transactions, data security and privacy. She regularly represents clients in sophisticated IP and technology transactions, including SaaS, cloud, software development, licenses, technology services, professional services and manufacturing. Sydney is a former civil defense litigator and has represented and counseled clients in contract, business and commercial disputes. Sydney received the Outstanding Diversity Advocate Award from the Bar Association of San Francisco in 2023 and was honored with the Outstanding Member Award by Black Women Lawyers of Northern California in 2022. She was also the recipient of the Minority Bar Coalition’s Unity Award in 2021.
Amanda is highly skilled in all areas of healthcare law. Prior to joining Benesch, she worked as a healthcare transactional and regulatory associate working with healthcare law documents, analyzing health care fraud and abuse laws and leading the due diligence review process. Amanda has experience in drafting and negotiating transactional and corporate documents in healthcare private equity platform and add-on deals such as asset and stock purchase agreements, employment agreements, disclosure schedules and ancillary documents. She has also drafted corporate documents for health care industry clients such as subscription and operating agreements, private placement memorandums, medical director agreements and more. Outside of her practice, Amanda is a member of the Health Law Section of the National Bar Association, a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and a past member of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys Diversity Committee.