Samantha Grant is a partner at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP in Los Angeles specializing in labor and employment law. She has received recognition for her work, including being named one of "10 Up and Coming African American Lawyers to Watch" by the Corporate Counsel Association. Ms. Grant has a passion for the law and helping her clients solve legal problems. She developed an interest in labor and employment law while working at the Canadian Human Rights Commission in undergraduate school and furthered her expertise through internships and positions at other firms. In addition to her legal work, Ms. Grant is involved in several professional organizations focused on diversity and mentors law students.

1. Corporate Counsel Association recognized her as one of “10 Up and Coming African American Lawyers to Watch” in
Diversity & the Bar.
“I love practicing law,” Ms. Grant declares.“And I love helping my clients solve and avoid problems.” One need speak with
the forthright Grant for only a few minutes to appreciate her passion for the law.An analytical thinker and roblem-solver,
Ms. Grant’s personality was suited for a career as a lawyer. From a young age, she says, her parents and teachers encouraged
her to pursue law.As an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, Ms. Grant worked at the Canadian Human Rights
Commission, where she interfaced with employers, employees, and unions with respect to alleged discrimination claims.
It was then that Ms. Grant developed her interest in labor and employment law. Following that interest, she would later
intern at the Writers Guild of America after her first year of law school. It was during this stage in her legal training that
Ms. Grant’s love affair with labor and employment law began, and she will readily tell you that she now enjoys every facet
of practicing it – from advising clients about the latest legal developments, litigation avoidance, and complex personnel
decisions, to litigating claims under FEHA and wage and hour laws, to collaborating with HR and in-house counsel, to
conducting training sessions on a variety of legal issues. Ms. Grant has achieved tremendous success along the way--she has
prevailed in multi-day arbitrations, successfully defeated class certification motions, and obtained dismissals of unfair labor
practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board.“I think the world of Samantha Grant. She exhibits exceptional
lawyering skills and professional ethics,” states Judge Patrick Walsh, a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles.
Before joining Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, Ms. Grant summered at another national firm and worked for a year at a labor
and employment boutique firm in Los Angeles.After five years of honing her litigation and advice and counseling skills, Ms.
Grant was offered an opportunity to participate in a secondment with Nestle, where she worked in the capacity of
in-house counsel. She believes that her two-year secondment with Nestle made her a more effective outside counsel
because, as she puts it,“You see the internal pressures that in-house counsel face.And you realize what is helpful and what is not
helpful. Sometimes, a one-page memo – not a ten-page memo – will do. Other times a ten-page memo will be necessary.”
As in-house counsel, you have an appreciation for the impact of legal advice and recognize that “you can’t practice law in an
ivory tower,” Ms. Grant explains. She encourages outside counsel to constantly seek to understand the goals of the client and
search for ways to present advice and recommendations in a more helpful and creative manner.
One word best describes Samantha C. Grant:“Enthusiastic.” Born in
London, England to Guyanese parents and raised in England and Toronto,
Canada, Ms. Grant had never set foot in California until she visited Los
Angeles, while scouting out law schools in the spring of 1995. Swayed by
the promise of 75 degree weather in November, Ms. Grant would later
graduate from UCLA School of Law and embark on a dynamic legal
career – both representing clients and working on bar related activities. A
partner in the labor and employment department of Mitchell Silberberg
& Knupp LLP in Los Angeles, Ms. Grant represents employers in a wide
array of employment matters inside and outside the courtroom. During her
dozen years of practice, she has garnered several professional accolades. In
2007, the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal named her as one of
California’s “Top Women Litigators” and the Minority

2. “Ms. Grant exhibits a rare combination of superb lawyering skills and keen ability to build a client base, due in no small part
to her hard work and involvement in her community,” explains T.Warren Jackson, SeniorVice President and Associate
General Counsel at The DIRECTV Group, Inc. Indeed, Ms. Grant is just as passionate about community and diversity as
she is about the law. She serves on a diversity outreach initiative taskforce of the Employment Rights and Responsibilities
Committee of the American Bar Association, is the Management Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee
of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, is National Co-Chair of Mitchell Silberberg &
Knupp’s Diversity Committee and is President-Elect of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc. In
addition to the countless hours she devotes to these roles, Ms. Grant mentors law students and junior lawyers to help them
succeed professionally and believes it is important to create a diversity pipeline into law firms and their leadership ranks.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is to meet people, create relationships, and nourish those relationships,” Ms. Grant
opines. Ms. Grant believes that contacts she made in law school through the UCLA BLSA Alumni Dinner Program and
BlackWomen Lawyers Association of Los Angeles were both helpful in her securing a summer position and her first associate
position upon graduating from law school, and that her contacts through other bar activities after graduating from law
school played a role in her joining Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in December 1999. She also credits her involvement in the
leadership of the American Bar Association with helping to build a client base.To this day, Ms. Grant maintains a robust life
outside the office despite demanding professional obligations by combining her social life with her work life.
Her ultimate advice to young associates who want to succeed in the profession is straight-forward:“Do excellent legal work.
Find a mentor--both inside and outside your firm. Develop a network early. Plant seeds. Be good to people and expect
nothing in return.”And last but not least,“Do what you enjoy.”