Squire Patton Boggs, a leading global law firm, announced the addition of two new members to its 12-person global board. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to inclusion and diversity, the firm named Alethia Nancoo and Ken Kurosu as the latest members of its global board. With this, Nancoo becomes the first African-American woman to take a seat the firm’s global board.
Nancoo is a partner at the firm’s Washington DC office. She also serves as the co-chair to the firm’s global inclusion and diversity committee. Her practice focuses on public, private and project debt finance with industry focus capital markets, infrastructure construction, airports and other construction areas. She has also been a part of all phases of P3 and special and general obligation bond financings. Her clients include public and private issuers, non-profit organizations and investment banking institutions in the US and Caribbean.
Some of the noteworthy projects in her portfolio include the Nassau International Airport, Miami International Airport and San Francisco International Airport. In 2020, she was awarded with the Minority Business Leader Award by the Washington Business Journal. Her parents are first generation Americans and she is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She joined Squire Patton Boggs from Edwards Wildman Palmer in 2013. Before Edwards, she worked at Hogan Lovells for 15 years, including seven years as a partner.
Nancoo is joined by Ken Kurosu, who is the managing partner at SPB’s Tokyo office and also the Asia Practice Coordinator. His practice concentrates on project finance, infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions and related corporate and commercial law matters with a special focus on energy, aviation, telecommunications and chemicals. Raised in Japan, Ken has also worked at the firm’s Los Angeles and Hong Kong offices.
Kurosu has been consistently named by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific as Japan’s leading lawyer for corporate mergers and acquisitions matters. He has also been named as one of the “Hot 100” lawyers by Asia Legal Business magazine. Kurosu is a graduate from The University of Washington School of Law and is also admitted to the State Bar of California.
Squire Patton Boggs’s global CEO and chair, Mark Ruehlmann said, “As the firm has grown over the years, we have been fortunate to have an historically strong and diverse board as a key component of our overall governance structure in place to effectively guide the strategic direction of the organization. We continue that tradition with the appointments of Ken and Alethia. They both are respected leaders and exceptional practitioners with a global outlook that reflects the reach of our firm.” The firm has consistently expressed its commitment to a diverse leadership.
Last month, Norton Rose Fullbright appointed its Houston based partner Shauna Clark as the firm’s US and global chair. With this, she became the first African-American woman to hold either post. Clark heads the firm’s US Employment and Labor Team.