U.S. law firm Davis Wright Tremaine has been around for nearly 80 years and never had a Latino chair its Executive Committee — until now.

On April 25, the law firm elected a new crop of executive committee leaders and among those newly appointed leaders is Camilo Echavarria as their new chair.

Echavarria — who is succeeding outgoing chair Sarah Tune — is the first Latino to be appointed chair of the firm’s executive committee.

An employment litigator, Echavarria is the firm’s Los Angeles partner-in-charge and also a member of the firm’s Diversity Executive Council, which oversees all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the firm.

Echavarria has more than 20 years of experience working with large- and medium-sized employers in California to defend them in employment lawsuits, ranging from single-plaintiff to class action cases. 

He also provides his clients with practical employment advice in their day-to-day operations and helps them navigate California's complicated employment laws while understanding the need to run a profitable and successful business. 

The firm describes Echavarria as “a fixer.”

“He handles his client’s employment programs that they can focus on their businesses and do what is most important to them,” his bio reads. 

Echavarria joined Davis Wright Tremaine in August 2006 after working three years as in-house counsel for NBC Universal. He began his career as a litigation attorney at Morrison & Foerster during the late 1990s. 

Throughout his career, Echavarria has established himself as a champion for diverse attorneys. In addition to his roles with Davis Wright Tremaine, Echavarria has also served in leadership roles at the Hispanic National Bar Association, the California Minority Counsel Program, and various other diversity-focused organizations. 

He graduated from Cornell University, earning a bachelor’s degree in government and economics before obtaining his Juris Doctor at the New York University School of Law. 

In addition to Echavarria, the firm has announced Jaimie Drozd, a complex commercial litigator who advises and defends clients against a variety of consumer class actions and co-chair of its litigation practice as its executive committee’s re-elected vice chair; and Sanjay Nangia, an experienced trial lawyer who represents a variety of high-profile companies with a focus on the technology, financial services, energy, and healthcare industries as its new secretary.