Corporate Attorney Mercedes Jackson and Immigration Attorney June Cheng Named to Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Programs

Fredrikson attorney Mercedes McFarland Jackson was named a member of the 2017 class of Fellows, participating in a landmark program created by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) to identify, train and advance the next generation of leaders in the legal profession. Fredrikson attorney Zhu “June” Cheng was named a member of the 2017 class of Pathfinders, an LCLD program designed to train high-potential, early-career attorneys in critical career development strategies including leadership and the building of professional networks.

Jackson specializes in debt finance transactions and advises clients on compliance matters under financing and corporate governance documents. She represents corporate borrowers, private equity groups and financial institutions in connection with commercial lending transactions, including acquisition financings, senior, second-lien and mezzanine financings, secured bond offerings, debt restructurings and debtor-in-possession financings.

Cheng helps foreign investors and Chinese and American companies achieve global mobility, with a focus on EB-5 and other investment-based immigration, employment-based immigration and immigration service in global relocation matters. A native of China, she works closely with Chinese clients on U.S. immigration matters and helps her clients navigate the unfamiliar and complex immigration issues involved in exploring the American market.

Founded in 2009, LCLD is a growing organization of more than 260 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who are personally committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. The Fellows program, which has trained more than a thousand mid-career attorneys since 2011, is one of LCLD’s most important initiatives. The Pathfinder Program is now in its second year as a full-scale program, having been piloted in 2015 among a select number of LCLD Member law firms and corporations. It is an initiative that has filled a gap in LCLD programming, targeting early-career attorneys at law firms and corporations. According to LCLD President Robert J. Grey, Jr., the LCLD Fellows Program offers participants “an extraordinarily rich year of relationship-building, in-person training, peer-group projects and extensive contact with LCLD’s top leadership,” and the Pathfinder Program provides members “intensive in-person training, online experiential learning and opportunities to network with peers and esteemed LCLD Fellows in small group gatherings.” For more information, visit www.lcldnet.org.

Fredrikson & Byron is a 275-attorney law firm based in Minneapolis, with offices in Bismarck, Des Moines, Fargo, St. Paul, Monterrey, Mexico, and Shanghai, China. Fredrikson & Byron has a reputation as the firm “where law and business meet”. Our attorneys bring business acumen and entrepreneurial thinking to work with clients, and operate as business advisors and strategic partners, as well as legal counselors. More information about the firm is available at www.fredlaw.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and on Twitter @FredriksonLaw.