Profiles in Diversity Journal has selected Melissa Foster Bird, a partner in Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP’s Huntington office, for a “2019 Women Worth Watching Leadership Award.” This year’s 166 winners represent executives who are “leading the way to excellence in the workplace, marketplace, and the world,” according to the publication.

Foster Bird has served as lead trial counsel in more than 40 trials in state and federal courts in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. Her experience includes representing clients in complex cases in the pharmaceutical, medical device, transportation, and chemical industries—including other manufacturers, retailers, and convenience stores—in some of the most difficult venues in the country. Foster Bird is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the premier legal associations of North America.

She is one of the Firm’s two Chief Diversity Partners. She mentors women and diverse attorneys throughout the firm. She led Nelson Mullins’ two-year study of best practices in diversity and inclusion, which resulted in a report and the adoption of most of its recommended policies.  In recognition of her work, Foster Bird received in 2017 Nelson Mullins’ Sara Turnipseed “Women on the Go” Award, which recognizes contributions by attorneys and policy advisors within the Firm who actively promote the success of women in the legal profession.

Published since 1999, Profiles in Diversity Journal promotes and advances diversity and inclusion in the corporate, government, nonprofit, higher education, and military sectors, according to the publisher.

Established in 1897, Nelson Mullins has more than 800 attorneys and government relations professionals with offices in 11 states and Washington, DC. Nelson Mullins and Broad and Cassel LLP combined effective August 1, 2018 and does business in Florida as Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel. For more information on the firm, go to www.nelsonmullins.com.