Partner Ronald Machen was featured in Savoy magazine’s 2018 list of the “Most Influential Black Lawyers.”
The list, which appears in the summer issue, represents the “best of the best” of African American lawyers at law firms and in corporate counsel offices. The lawyers on the list are “powerful and impactful,” said LP Green II, Savoy’s publisher.
Mr. Machen is one of the nation’s leading trial and white-collar defense lawyers, having tried more than 35 cases to verdict. A one-time US Attorney for the District of Columbia, the nation’s largest US Attorney’s office, he now co-chairs the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group. He is also a member of the firm’s Management Committee.
In a profile in the magazine, Mr. Machen discusses the importance of mentors to a successful legal career: “I was fortunate enough to have several effective mentors throughout my career—not just people who provided general guidance, but a number of educators, judges, and practicing attorneys who were deeply committed to my success.”
From his time at Harvard Law School, where he bonded with the prominent legal scholar Professor Charles Ogletree, to his tenure as a US Attorney where then-Attorney General Eric Holder was a mentor, Mr. Machen credits such lawyers with providing him opportunities to hone his skills and build his experience.
Mentors in Mr. Machen’s early career included then-WilmerHale Partner John Payton, a former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president and director counsel, and US Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith, who encouraged Mr. Machen to become a prosecutor.
Mr. Machen also views the general counsel he now advises as mentors: “These colleagues have given me a chance to showcase my skills, as well as the capabilities of other talented, diverse attorneys on my teams.”
As a lawyer who has greatly benefitted from the support of his mentors, Mr. Machen is committed to mentoring others as well. “I’m always trying to pave the way for younger attorneys,” he said in the profile. “I have built lasting relationships with talented, diverse attorneys, both in the government and in the private sector… I look forward to helping them—just as others have helped me—in actively facilitating their success.”