Freeborn & Peters issued the following announcement on May 31.
Freeborn & Peters LLP is pleased to announce that Shelly A. DeRousse, a Partner in the firm’s Chicago office and Co-Leader of Freeborn’s Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice Group, is one of six women in the nation to be named a finalist for the Chambers Women in Law Awards: USA 2018. Ms. DeRousse is recognized in the category “Inspiring Role Model in Promoting Gender Diversity in the Legal Profession.”
“We congratulate Shelly on this much-deserved recognition from the Chambers Women in Law Awards,” said Michael J. Kelly, Freeborn’s Co-Managing Partner. “Most prominent women in the law throughout Illinois recognize and know Ms. DeRousse for her dedication to and work supporting the advancement of women in the legal profession.”
Now in its seventh year, the Chambers Women in Law Awards recognize those pioneers, from both in-house and private practice, who are bringing about dramatic improvements in gender equality as well as women's advancement and inclusion in the legal profession.
Since 2016, Ms. DeRousse has served as president of the Women’s Bar Foundation (WBF) of Illinois, a non‐profit organization that supports the advancement of women in the legal profession by raising money and awarding scholarships to women in each of the nine law schools in Illinois. Ms. DeRousse began volunteering with the WBF as a junior attorney and was appointed to the organization’s board of directors 10 years ago and subsequently to the WBF’s executive board.
At Freeborn, Ms. DeRousse chairs the networking group Women’s Leadership Council and supervises and mentors the women attorneys who belong to the Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice Group. She also advocates for women at the firm as a whole and for policies that support women.
In addition, Ms. DeRousse serves as co-chair of the Network of Women for the Turnaround Management Association for the Midwest Region. In this role, she plans and runs events designed to create connections among professional women in turnaround management.
A successful and accomplished commercial litigator and trial attorney, Ms. DeRousse has extensive experience in the areas of bankruptcy, restructuring, litigation and asset sales. She is known among banks and other financial institutions as a leading attorney for lenders in bankruptcy cases, out-of-court workouts of borrowers’ loans, and assignments for the benefit of creditors. Shelly also has represented as lead counsel official creditors’ committees throughout the country. Additionally, she regularly represents companies and high earning individuals in their bankruptcies or workout negotiations with their lenders and other creditors.
Ms. DeRousse received her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and her Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University.
Original source can be found here.