Laura B. Friedman

As Senior Director of Professional Development at Taft, Laura serves in a multi-faceted role to support associates with the goal of training, developing, mentoring and advancing their short-term and long-term professional success. This includes guiding and coaching associates throughout their career stages, matching associates to work opportunities with an eye toward achieving a purposeful and equitable distribution of work assignments, and contributing to firm-wide initiatives and programs designed to enhance associate development and retention. To accomplish these objectives, she partners with firm leaders and operational teams to strategically support overall associate advancement and ensure alignment of the firm’s strategies.

Prior to joining Taft, Laura served as the Director of Professional Development and Career Counseling at Case Western Reserve University School of Law where she curated professional development programming for law students and counseled students on all aspects of their job search and career goals. Before this, she served as in-house counsel for a global retailer and worked as an attorney for a prominent national law firm.

Laura earned her J.D., cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University in 2013 and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Aquinas College in 2008.

• Quoted, “Advice offered on preparing for bar exam,” Cleveland Jewish News, Nov. 13, 2024.
• Quoted, “Firms do their best to on-board first-year attorneys,” Cleveland Jewish News, Aug. 12, 2022.