Jack "Skip" McCowan Named to Defense Research Institute Board, Elected National Director

Jack "Skip" McCowan, a partner at Gordon & Rees in San Francisco, has been elected as a National Director and will serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors for the Defense Research Institute, the largest international association of attorneys defending the interests of businesses and individuals in civil litigation. Mr. McCowan, one of four new national directors, has been a member of DRI for nearly 30 years and is the immediate past chair of DRI's Drug and Medical Device Committee, which has presented 28 annual seminars of the best CLE programs available on drug and medical device law.

From 2003 through 2010, McCowan chaired Gordon and Rees' Diversity Committee and was instrumental in helping the firm develop a formal plan committed to achieving sensitivity and receptivity of diversity issues, which resulted in a steady increase in the hiring and promotion of minority and women attorneys over the past nine years. DRI recognized Gordon & Rees for its diversity efforts when it presented the firm with its prestigious Law Firm Diversity Award in 2005. For the past several years, Gordon & Rees has served as a sponsor of the DRI Diversity for Success Seminar in Chicago.