Pepper Hamilton to Honor Linda Friedman of Astellas at Annual Celebrate Diversity Event
Pepper Hamilton LLP will hold its 13th annual Celebrate Diversity event on July 23 at the Arts Ballroom in Philadelphia. Pepper attorneys, members of the legal community, clients and friends of the firm will join together to recognize the 2018 Champion of Diversity and to honor the efforts of Pepper’s Diversity Committee in promoting greater diversity and inclusion in the firm, in the legal profession and in the community.
This year’s Champion of Diversity award will be presented to Linda F. Friedman, executive vice president and general counsel for Astellas. In this role, Ms. Friedman has responsibility for the pharmaceutical company’s legal organization worldwide. During Celebrate Diversity’s pre-reception program, Ms. Friedman will present “Achieving Diversity Balance in the Legal Profession: Best and Next Practices.”
Ms. Friedman oversees legal matters worldwide for Astellas by providing strategic and tactical legal advice to the CEO, board of directors, senior management, global colleagues and business clients. She joined Fujisawa (Astellas’s predecessor company) in 1993 as a corporate attorney and has held positions of increasing responsibility. Ms. Friedman is also the executive sponsor of Astellas's LGBTQ employee resource group, known as TAO (Together As One).
At Celebrate Diversity, Pepper will also announce the winners of its High School Essay Contest. Now it its eighth year, the essay contest introduces Philadelphia-area high school students to laws and legal decisions that have a broad impact on our society, and recognizes them for their work. The experience is designed to encourage participants to think about a career in law, potentially leading to a more diverse legal profession down the road.