Overview
(April 12, 2024, Washington, DC) – Partner Lauren Azebu and pro bono counsel Harmony Jones have been named among the 2024 Emerging Women Leaders in Law by DCA Live. They will be recognized on May 7, 2024, during a special event honoring women attorneys in the Washington region who are emerging as leaders within their firms and the broader DC legal community.
Azebu has over a decade of experience advising domestic and foreign clients on a broad spectrum of complex tax matters, including cross-border investments, business restructurings, FIRPTA, digital asset issues, information reporting and withholding obligations, and pre-immigration and expatriation planning. An active member of Steptoe's Pro Bono Committee, she has assisted several clients in settling tax issues with the IRS. Azebu has held a number of leadership positions both at Steptoe and in the broader legal community. She is currently the chair of the Steptoe AAPI Lawyers Affinity Group, which facilitates relationship-building among lawyers in the Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures. Outside of Steptoe, she serves as a Board Member for APABA-DC and the Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law DC Chapter (of which she is the former President), and she is the former Vice-Chair and a founding member of the ABA Tax Section’s Women in Tax Forum.
Jones is responsible for developing, promoting and supervising the firmwide pro bono program, which seeks to increase access to justice. She provides representation and mentorship on a variety of pro bono matters, including those involving civil rights, criminal justice, housing and public benefits law. She serves as Co-Chair of Steptoe's Black Lawyers Affinity Group, and as an active member of the diversity committee. In the broader community, she is Co-Chair of the DC Pro Bono Week Committee, a board member for the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, and a mentor to students from underrepresented communities through several mock court and pipeline programs. Harmony was recently named a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a diverse network of leaders brought together to create meaningful change while learning about leadership through the lens of presidential experiences. Through this program, she will join with the Maryland Parole Project to build partnerships between incarcerated individuals, returning citizens, and pro bono counsel.
DCA Live hosts live and virtual events featuring companies and professionals in the Washington, DC region's legal, association & nonprofit, entrepreneur, federal tech, real estate and corporate communities. DCA Live also publishes a daily digital newsletter featuring profiles of leading companies and professionals from these industries and news and insights on DC business.
About Steptoe
In more than 110 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
The diversity of the firm is a critical factor in its success. The firm’s chair is a woman; the majority of the firm’s elected executive committee is female; the majority of Steptoe's ten offices are managed by women; and the majority of Steptoe’s practice groups have women as leaders. The firm's six-person professional business services leadership is equally diverse, with two women of color, and other leaders who openly identify as LGBTQ+.
