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Atlanta Business Chronicle
May 9, 2003
Backgrounder for Sarah Rubenstein
Prepared by Schroder Public Relations

First Female African-American Partner
At King & Spalding Balances Law, Family Life


At the age of 32, Lovita Tandy achieved one of her life's goals. She became the first female African-American partner at the prestigious law firm of King & Spalding. And in a profession where 80 plus-hour workweeks are not unheard of, she did it without sacrificing her family life.

In fact, shortly before she was named partner, Lovita took a gamble. She requested a shorter workweek to spend time with her young son, Thomas, who turns two at the end of the year. The gamble paid off. They made her a partner in April, and she will assume partnership duties in January. She figures she had worked plenty of hours before then to demonstrate her commitment to her clients and the firm.

Lovita's clients include The Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corporation and Honda Motor Corporation, whom she represents in racial discrimination and sexual harassment disputes. She also spends time with company leaders to help them effectively handle labor issues.

"I have always been interested in issues of prejudice and diversity," Lovita says. She does fundraising and is on the board of the Anti-Prejudice Consortium, a non-profit group that works with Georgia Tech and Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University as a resource for middle school children to fight prejudice, discrimination and intolerance. The group puts on Prejudice Awareness Summits every October. "We have had children from 43 different schools participate," she said. "Eight to 10 children from each school come to the summit, then go back to their school where they act as ambassadors for diversity, in gender, race, or being different in any other aspect."

Lovita's other passion is her family, which includes her husband, Randell C. Smith, who has an MBA and works at Orix, a financial services company, and their young son, Thomas. Lovita works hard to tailor her days to spend as much time with him as possible. "I often work long days, then am able to take a few days off to be with him, " she said. "My workload allows that. Any free time I have, I want to spend with my family."

That does mean cutting down on social time with co-workers. "Sometimes people ask me to go out for Happy Hour after work," she says. "But I want to go home and be with Thomas. That's why I had him."

Lovita is a graduate of Harvard University and Duke Law School. She moved to Atlanta in 1997 to work at King & Spalding. "I love Atlanta," she says. "We're close to my husband's family, who is in Alabama, and my mother has just moved in with us." They live in Southwest Atlanta.

Although she and her husband both have advanced degrees, she says, "It's not as important what Thomas' job is when he grows up. We just want him to be self-sufficient and good to other people."

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