Sidley Austin has named María D. Meléndez its new chief diversity officer. She will replace Sally Olson who has served as chief diversity officer at Sidley since 2011 and will be retiring from the firm May 1, 2020.
Previously a partner in Sidley’s Commercial Litigation and Disputes practice, Meléndez has more than 25 years of experience in the litigation and arbitration of a broad range of high-stakes commercial disputes. From 2017 through 2019, Maria was named one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” by Benchmark Litigation.
“Under Sally’s leadership, we have experienced a measurable, sustained increase in the diversity of our partnership and firm overall, and a strengthening of our inclusive culture,” said Mike Schmidtberger, chair of Sidley’s executive committee. “We sincerely thank Sally for her tireless work and are confident that María has the passion, vision and resolve to propel our efforts further forward. María is widely respected and known in the legal profession as a diversity and inclusion champion and we are delighted she chose to set aside her active legal practice to accept this important role.”
