Sharon E. Jones
Ms. Jones is a lawyer by training and a diversity consultant who specializes in providing diversity/inclusion consulting and training to individuals, law firms, corporations and other types of organizations. She is the founder and President of Jones Diversity Group. Her firm’s broad range of services enhance an organization’s competitive edge by enabling the organization to fully utilize, retain and promote diverse individuals into leadership roles and create inclusive workplace cultures.
Ms. Jones has practiced law and been a community leader over a 25 year career, including positions as a federal prosecutor, with major law firms and with Fortune 500 Corporations. She has been highly successful as a litigator, a counselor, an educator and a problem-solver with regard to extremely complex and sensitive matters. Most recently, she served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for the Chicago Urban League, an organization with over 75 employees and a $10 million budget.
From 1985-1989, Ms. Jones served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago, where she conducted federal grand jury investigations and trials in high profile white-collar criminal cases. In private law practice, she was a partner at Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert & Matz in Los Angeles. In addition to her litigation practice, she was responsible for all in-house continuing legal education, as well as being an adviser to clients on a variety of employment and workplace harassment issues. She was Of Counsel at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe in Los Angeles, where she created and implemented its litigation training as well as firm-wide orientation training and evaluation programs. Ms. Jones has taught Trial Advocacy, both as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern Law School and at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
In the corporate sector, Ms. Jones managed litigation matters worldwide for Abbott Laboratories, as well as advising senior management in matters of crisis management and in fashioning creative solutions to highly complex business issues. After leaving Abbott Laboratories, Ms. Jones joined SBC Communications (now AT&T) as Senior Counsel.
From 2000-2001, Ms. Jones served as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Private Antitrust Litigation Committee and from 1994-1995, she was Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association West Coast Committee of White Collar Crimes. She is a co-author of two bar association reports providing consulting advice to Los Angeles County: The City in Crisis—A Report by the Special Advisor to the Board of Police Commissioners on the Civil Disorder in Los Angeles (October 1992) and Report of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Advisory Committee for the Office of the District Attorney (September 1994).
Ms. Jones was Counsel of Record in the amicus curiae brief filed in the United States Supreme Court in 2003 by the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago in Grutter v. Bollinger and the University of Michigan in support of diversity in higher education.
Ms. Jones is the past President of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago. Previously, she served as the Program Chair and created the innovative monthly BWLA Roundtable luncheon series designed to increase mentoring and networking opportunities for its members. Ms. Jones is currently on the Board of Directors for Women Employed. She has served as a consultant to the ABA General Counsel Steering Committee to the Minority Counsel Program. She is the past Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity and was instrumental in the 2006 adoption of the Chicago Bar Association’s Diversity Initiative and Commitments on Racial & Ethnic Diversity. She is the incoming President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association.
Ms. Jones is a co-author of a guide published by the American Bar Association in May 2004 entitled, “Walking the Talk: Creating a Law Firm Culture Where Women Succeed” which deals with the retention and promotion of women in law firms.
Ms. Jones is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.
Ms. Jones can be reached at:
Jones Diversity Group, LLC
372 West Ontario Street, Suite 501
Chicago, Illinois 60654
phone: (312) 705-6852
e-mail: Sharon@jonesdiversity.com
The website address is www.jonesdiversity.com