Baker Donelson attorneys Nancy Scott Degan and Linda A. Klein were recognized among the ABA Section of Litigation's "100 Women Who Inspire Us."
Ms. Degan and Ms. Klein were among the honorees recognized at the 2019 Women in Litigation Joint CLE Conference held in Chicago on November 13 – 15. The conference was part of the ABA Litigation Section's year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the constitutional right to vote.
Senior managing shareholder at Baker Donelson and past president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Ms. Klein, who is resident in Baker Donelson's Atlanta office, focuses her practice on most types of business dispute prevention and resolution, internal investigations, contract law, professional liability, and risk and crisis management. She has worked extensively with clients in the construction, higher education and pharmaceutical industries.
In addition to her role as past president for the ABA, the world's largest voluntary professional association, Ms. Klein previously served as chair of the ABA's House of Delegates, the association's policymaking body. She has also served as chair of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, chair of the Committee on Rules and Calendar of the House of Delegates, chair of the Coalition for Justice, and chair of ABA Day, the Association's Congressional outreach effort. She is a recent member of the Council of the ABA Section of International Law, and also served as a columnist and on the Board of Editors of Law Practice Management Magazine.
The first woman president of the State Bar of Georgia, Ms. Klein received the State Bar's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 2015, and in 2011 was recognized with the State Bar's Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award. In 2004, the ABA honored Ms. Klein with the prestigious Margaret Brent Achievement Award, and she received the 2009 Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award. She was recognized with the first Lifetime Achievement Award from The Daily Report in 2015, was named a "Champion for Justice" by the Georgia Legal Services Program in 2013, and was honored with The Daily Report's 2018 Attorney of the Year Award.
Managing shareholder of Baker Donelson's New Orleans office, Ms. Degan is a member of Baker Donelson's Business Litigation Group and served for six years on Baker Donelson's Board of Directors. She also chaired Baker Donelson's Business Litigation Group for nine years. Ms. Degan has more than 35 years of experience helping businesses and business people resolve their disputes through trials, arbitrations, appeals and negotiations. She handles breach of contract disputes, all manner of bank litigation, oil and gas royalty and environmental damage cases, property disputes, general business torts, and shareholder and securities litigation. She also has extensive experience defending companies' officers and directors against breach of duty allegations.
Ms. Degan served as chair of the 60,000-member ABA Section of Litigation from 2014 to 2015. During her term as chair, she founded the Women in Litigation Joint CLE Conference. From 2016 to 2017, she served as chair of the nonpartisan ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which assists the White House and United States Senate by vetting federal judicial nominees for integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament. The author of numerous articles and scholarly works regarding commercial litigation, mineral law and evidence, Ms. Degan has been recognized as a leading lawyer by several national publications, including Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation and The Best Lawyers in America©.