Laura Petroff Listed in Daily Journal’s Top 100 California Lawyers

LOS ANGELES, September 21, 2006 – Winston & Strawn announced today that Los Angeles office Managing Partner Laura R. Petroff was named by the Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Most Influential California Lawyers in the September 21 edition of the legal newspaper. The publication hosted a cocktail reception Wednesday evening at the Beverly Hills Hotel to congratulate the honorees.

Petroff was selected not only for her outstanding legal skills, but also for excelling in her role leading a major office of an international law firm.

In 2000, shortly after joining Winston & Strawn’s Los Angeles office, which opened a year earlier, Petroff was running it. “It didn’t take the firm long to recognize her superb leadership skills,” said Winston & Strawn Chairman Dan Webb. “We wanted to grow that office and we saw that Laura had the capability to keep the office flourishing while helping newly hired lawyers settle quickly into our firm culture. We frequently applaud ourselves for our brilliance in giving her the job.”

The Daily Journal publishes its Top 100 list every September, considering the nominations of thousands of lawyers from across the state. The chosen few each year are selected for their ability to elevate the practice of law and influence the legal system to greater levels of justice.

As managing partner in Los Angeles, Petroff not only oversees 50 lawyers and all their in-house support staff and outside contractors, but she is also actively involved in the recruiting and hiring process. She is responsible for financial planning and budgeting, professional development, and business development. She manages the client intake and conflicts procedures, keeps up-to-date on endeavors of the office’s practice groups, and mentors less experienced lawyers. Petroff also serves on the firmwide Executive Committee, taking part in strategic planning and execution concerning the firm’s eight offices, and works with the San Francisco office to coordinate the firm’s growth in California. In addition, she chairs the Partner Compensation Committee and is a member of the firm’s Diversity Committee.

In the courtroom, Petroff represents publicly traded domestic and foreign corporations in employment relations litigation, including sexual harassment and discrimination allegations, wage-and-hour claims, and multi-party class actions. A significant part of her practice, however, takes place away from the courthouse, counseling clients and training management how to comply with state and federal employment law.

As part of her commitment to provide pro bono legal services, Petroff serves on the board of Public Counsel Law Center and promotes pro bono activities at the firm. With her encouragement, the Los Angeles office partners with Public Counsel in an innovative project to assist low-income, abused and neglected school children in individualized education programs to enhance their academic development. The office also completed an adoption project that helped provide homes for 22 children. One of these was “Baby Moses,” who had been abandoned in a dumpster in South Los Angeles. Petroff also serves on the board of the California Women’s Law Center, which advocates for and protects the civil rights of women and girls.

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international commercial law firm with more than 850 attorneys in nine offices, including Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Geneva and Moscow.