Arnold & Porter Hosts D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Event

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2005 -The Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia will be the featured speaker at the second meeting of the D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Series. Hosted by Arnold & Porter LLP, the program will be held on Thursday, June 9th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the firm's Washington, D.C., office, located at 555 Twelfth Street, N.W. (near Metro Center). The D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Series is co-organized by Arnold & Porter LLP and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. The ongoing series is being sponsored by 28 law firms in Washington, D.C.

Judge Urbina was appointed to the United States District Court in July 1994; He previously served as Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, a position to which he was appointed in 1981, when he became the first Hispanic judge in the history of the District of Columbia. He served as Presiding Judge of the Superior Court's Family Division from 1985 to 1988. Judge Urbina served as staff attorney for the D.C. Public Defender service from 1970 to 1972 and then entered private practice. From 1974 to 1981, he taught at Howard University Law School and directed the University's Criminal Justice Program. In 2001, he was honored for excellence in teaching by George Washington University Law School.

Fried Frank and Arnold & Porter created the D.C. Minority Attorney Networking Series. The series is intended to provide a forum to allow attorneys of color in the D.C. metropolitan area to network and discuss issues of professional development, build alliances, and form relationships with peers. The concept for the series was generated by Fried Frank's Attorney of Color affinity group. The inaugural event, which was held in March 2005 and featured the President and COO of Black Entertainment Television, was attended by more than 300 lawyers.

In addition to the co-founding firms, twenty-six more leading law firms in Washington, D.C. have agreed to team up and sponsor the Minority Attorney Networking Series. Those firms include: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld LLP; Arent Fox PLLC; Baker Botts LLP; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Covington & Burling; Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP; Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP; Fulbright & Jaworsky; Hogan & Hartson LLP; Howrey Simon Arnold & White, LLP; K&LNG: Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP; Latham & Watkins; McDermott Will & Emery; McKenna, Long & Aldridge; Miller & Chevalier; Mintz Levin; Morgan Lewis; O'Melveny & Myers LLP; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP; Steptoe & Johnson, LLP; Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, LLP; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; Williams & Connolly LLP; Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP; Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP.

Arnold & Porter LLP, an international law firm of approximately 650 attorneys, has offices in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, London, and Brussels. The firm, founded in 1946, maintains more than 25 practice areas spanning a broad spectrum of the law, with a primary focus on litigation, transactional matters, and regulatory issues.