Bowles Rice LLP issued the following announcement on Jan. 23.
Bowles Rice is proud to announce that Ashley Hardesty Odell and Steven Hall, both attorneys in the firm’s Morgantown office, have been selected to programs of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). Odell will be participating in the organization’s 2019 Fellows Program and Hall will take part in its Pathfinders Program. LCLD is a national organization of more than 300 law firms and corporate chief legal officers who are dedicated to creating a truly diverse legal profession.
“We are thrilled that Ashley and Steven will be participating in these outstanding LCLD programs,” said Tom Heywood, Managing Partner at Bowles Rice. “Ashley has long championed the importance of diversity within our firm and throughout her community and state, and she will be an outstanding member of the 2019 LCLD Fellows class. And, as a new partner in our firm, Steven is an ideal participant in the Pathfinders Program, which is focused on developing future leaders.”
The goal of the LCLD Fellows Program is to produce a generation of attorneys with strong leadership and relationship skills who are committed to fostering diversity within their individual institutions and the profession at large. Odell was named Bowles Rice’s Diversity Partner in January 2018. Outside of the firm, she chairs the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Diversity Working Group.
“It is truly an honor to receive this opportunity from the LCLD,” said Odell. “I’m looking forward to collaborating and networking, both regionally and nationally, with others who are inspired to help create a more diverse legal profession. I’m also extremely proud that my colleague Steven has been named a member of the 2019 class of Pathfinders.”
The Pathfinders Program was designed by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) to train early-career attorneys in critical career development strategies, including leadership and the building of professional networks.
Odell is the President of United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties and a member of the Morgantown Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She earned her law degree in 2003 from the West Virginia College of Law, where she currently serves as a member of the Visiting Committee.
Hall, a member of the firm’s Energy Department, is a 2010 graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law. He serves as recorder for the Town of Barrackville in Marion County, West Virginia.
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