ATLANTA -- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has chosen senior associates Chelsea K. Barnes and Avery Carter as the 2023 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders. Starting next month, they will participate in a program designed to train diverse, high-performing  attorneys early in the career in important career development strategies, including leadership and building professional networks.

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, founded in 2009, is an organization with more than 400 members, who serve as either general counsel of major corporations or managing partners of the nation's leading law firms, according to its website. The membership is committed to “creating a truly diverse U.S. legal profession,” and LCLD’s programs nurture and develop a new generation of diverse attorneys so that they reach leadership positions in their own organizations.

As Pathfinders, Barnes and Carter will learn foundational leadership skills, understand career development strategies for in-house and law firm practice, and manage internal professional networks through relationship building skills. This professional development program spans six to seven months and uses in-person, online and networking opportunities.

Barnes, a senior associate in the Firm’s Winston-Salem office, is a litigator with a wide variety of experience, including in healthcare, certificate of need, toxic tort litigation, and products liability. She is an honoree of the Triad Business Journal’s 20 in their 20s and was also recognized for her pro bono work by the N.C. Pro Bono Resource Center. Barnes was a 2022 recipient of the Firm’s Early Start Award for her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.

Carter, a senior associate in the Firm’s Atlanta office, is a commercial and products liability litigator who represents plaintiffs and defendants in litigation and arbitration. He represents clients in a broad range of cases involving commercial business disputes, mass tort and products liability, premises liability, and employment issues. He is also experienced in pre-trial aspects of litigation including deposing plaintiffs, defendants, and expert and fact witnesses, drafting motions and briefs, arguing motions in limine, and preparing for trial.   

Established in 1897, Nelson Mullins is an Am Law 100 firm of more than 1,000 attorneys, policy advisors and professionals with 31 offices in 15 states and Washington, D.C. For more information, go to www.nelsonmullins.com.