McGuireWoods partner Sabrina Beldner has been named chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Department, effective July 1. She will take over for Bruce Steen, who will become the firm’s general counsel in January 2021.
Steen will succeed fellow Charlotte partner Doug Ey, who has served as general counsel since 2013. Ey also held other key leadership positions at McGuireWoods and at a predecessor firm, Helms Mulliss & Wicker, which merged with McGuireWoods in 2008. He will continue to serve in the firm’s Office of General Counsel after the transition.
Beldner, based in Los Angeles, represents clients in employment-related individual, class, representative and collective action claims and traditional labor law matters. She conducts high-level employee misconduct investigations and management training on preventing unlawful employment practices. Beldner also serves on McGuireWoods’ Recruiting and Diversity & Inclusion Committees and chairs the firm’s LGBTQ Lawyer Network. Among her many accolades, Lawdragon named her an “Up and Comer” on its “100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” list, L.A. Biz honored her with a "Women of Influence" award, and the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized her on its "Most Influential Minority Lawyers" list.
Steen has led McGuireWoods’ L&E Department since 2016. He represents employers and management in matters related to wage and hour and wage payment statutes as well as Title VII, the ADA and other federal laws. His clients also include ERISA pension and welfare plans and plan sponsors. Under his leadership, the firm earned Tier 1 national rankings for labor and employment litigation, employment law, and employee benefits (ERISA) law in 2020’s U.S. News-Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms.” Steen is an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches an employment law seminar and is a frequent lecturer on employment law issues.
Before becoming the firm’s general counsel, Ey chaired McGuireWoods’ Financial Services Litigation Department. He is a fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers and a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Chambers has named him an “Eminent Practitioner” in North Carolina general commercial litigation multiple times. And in 2016, McGuireWoods presented Ey with the Anne Whittemore Award for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his contributions to the firm, the legal profession and the community.
“Bruce has done a wonderful job as a department chair, and Sabrina will be stepping in to lead one of the top L&E departments in the country. We are very fortunate they each are willing to serve the firm by undertaking these important practice management responsibilities,” said Deputy Managing Partner for Litigation Dion W. Hayes.
“Sabrina and Bruce are proven leaders who will continue contributing greatly to the firm’s success in their new roles,” said Managing Partner J. Tracy Walker IV. “Our firm and our clients have benefited from Doug’s skill, wisdom and collegiality over the years and we can’t thank him enough. We will have more to say about Doug’s immeasurable contributions to the firm later in the year.”