Cover Story
Elizabeth D. Moore, partner - Nixon Peabody L.L.P., New York City
A leadership position within the labor and employment practice group at Nixon Peabody was a natural fit for Elizabeth D. Moore, the daughter of two union members. “[My parents] really felt that the unions helped them obtain good jobs and good benefits,” says Moore, who was appointed co-chair of Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer’s Transition Committee. Moore attended the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University with the assistance of a scholarship from the National Health Care Workers’ Union. She later studied law at St. John’s University, and then began her career in the employment area of Consolidated Edison’s law department, where she worked under Frank Conrad, a seasoned attorney. “He really took me under his wing. He was often critical of the work I did, but it was a terrific learning experience,” she says.
After two years at ConEd, Moore served briefly at American Express and The Equitable, then as assistant counsel to New York Gov. Hugh L. Carey and later to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. She served as director of Gov. Cuomo’s Office of Employer Relations and subsequently as counsel to Cuomo. Moore returned to the private sector in 1994 as a partner at Nixon Hargrove, now Nixon Peabody. “My experiences in state government, and having run state agencies and having done an enormous amount of legal work in a wide array of areas, was appealing to the firm,” she explains.
As head of the firm’s labor and employment practice group’s preventive services team, Moore manages a group that provides training, assessment and counseling to clients in the area of compliance with federal and state employment laws. She also conducts training programs on all aspects of employment law, including anti-harassment and diversity. Moore co-chairs Nixon Peabody’s Diversity Action Committee, and, as a member of the board of trustees of Cornell University and the Rochester Institute of Technology, also works to ensure that both schools successfully address diversity issues. “As lawyers we have such tremendous skills,” she says. “It’s important that we use them not just as a way to earn a living, but as a way to better society.”
By Angela Johnson Meadows
