Diane Owens Elected First Female to Chair Mercer's Board of Trustees

Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, LLP, is pleased to announce that M. Diane Owens has been elected as the first female to chair the Mercer's Board of Trustees. By a unanimous vote, Ms. Owens, who has previously served as a member of the board, will serve a one-year term in her new position. Along with the election of Ms. Owens, the board elected twelve new members during its annual meeting on November 19.

M. Diane Owens specializes in products liability, employment discrimination, premises liability, environmental and toxic torts. Ms. Owens has also handled a significant number of matters involving catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation. She practices in all state and federal courts in Georgia and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

M. Diane Owens graduated from Mercer University with an A.B. degree, summa cum laude, in 1977, and her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, in 1980. A member of Phi Delta Phi, Sigma Mu and Brainerd Currie Honor Society, she served on the Mercer Law Review as Associate Editor. She was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1980. In 2006, Ms. Owens received Mercer University's prestigious Meritorious Service Award.

Ms. Owens is a member of the Atlanta and American Bar Associations, the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association and the Lawyers Club of Atlanta. She is also a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (PLAC), the International Association of Defense Counsel and Defense Research Institute, where she serves on the Products Liability Committee and the Environmental and Toxic Tort Committee. Ms. Owens has been named a Georgia Super Lawyer by Atlanta Magazine since 2005.

Ms. Owens has presented legal seminars for PLAC, Georgia State University, Insurance Law Institute, the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association (Trial Academy) and the Georgia Association of Trial Lawyers.