Change Agent
Allegra Lawrence-Hardy was mentored by some of the biggest names
in Georgia law; she’s paying it forward with the Sutherland Scholars
BY KENNA SIMMONS PHOTOGRAPHY BY STAN KAADY
ALLEGRA J. LAWRENCE-HARDY
· PARTNER, SUTHERLAND ASBILL
& BRENNAN; ATLANTA
· BUSINESS LITIGATION;
EMPLO YMEN T & LABOR
· GEORGIA SUPER LAWYERS:
2004–2016; TOP 100: 2010;
TOP 50 WOMEN: 2007–2015
ALLEGRA LAWRENCE-HARDY TALKS
about changing the world because that’s
the charge given to students at Spelman
College, a historically black liberal arts
college for women in Atlanta.
“In my family, all women go to Spelman,”
she says, citing her mother and grandmother,
both of whom worked at Spelman in various
capacities, too. “My niece is there now—she’s
fourth generation. My daughter, every night
we sing the Spelman song: ‘It’s my choice
and I choose to change the world.’” She
smiles. “We start the brainwashing early.”
At Spelman, she adds, “They are very
clear that you are being educated to be a
change agent. I’m aware of that every day.”
Her niece, Alexandra Lawrence, now
a sophomore at Spelman, says she often
thinks of her aunt when she sees how
Spelman tries to mold young women. “I see
how resilient she’s been and how much hard
work and effort she’s put into things. I know
I can do that, too,” Lawrence says. She calls
her aunt “the ultimate Spelman woman.”
As co-head of both the business/
commercial litigation team and the labor/
employment team at Sutherland Asbill
& Brennan, Lawrence-Hardy works on
complex cases for clients ranging from
Fortune 100 companies to major utilities.
She loves the fact that her job requires
expertise in many areas; that it requires
continued learning. “We represented a
major auto manufacturer and for four years
I spent most of my time in [auto] plants. I
felt like I could build a truck!”
She loves the knotty problems, the ones
that require assembling a multidisciplinary
team. At stake is not only litigation but risk
to a company’s reputation, stock price and
employee morale.
“I don’t believe legal problems occur in a
vacuum,” she says. “They are one aspect of
the bigger issue.”
LAWRENCE-HARDY’S LOVE OF READING
began with her grandmother. “She was a
big believer in the power of books to make
you understand different perspectives,”
she says.
That power almost propelled Lawrence-Hardy into a career in journalism. While
pursuing a degree in English from
Spelman, she interned at Atlanta magazine
and worked with attorneys who reviewed
copy before it went to print. There, she
says, “I learned the importance of putting
together a story, of being well-researched,
well-written and accurate, and the real
beauty of the First Amendment.” Not
realizing this type of work was “probably
about 10 percent of their practice,” she
decided to become a constitutional lawyer,
and headed to Yale Law School.
