Valecia M. McDowell

Valecia M. McDowell is Head of Moore & Van Allen’s Civil Rights & Racial Equity Assessments practice. She is also Co-Head of White Collar, Regulatory Defense and Investigations practice, Co-Chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee, and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. 

Valecia has extensive experience performing privileged reviews into civil rights considerations and publishing a racial equity audit report for CoreCivic, the largest private operator of correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the U.S. Valecia is also a frequent speaker and contributor to national publications and industry groups (see publications). Valecia has developed particularized investigative knowledge in the areas of employee conduct and risk management, core civil rights assessments relating to discrimination, harassment, disparate impact, and corporate ethics. In addition, she frequently leads engagements conducting complex financial services investigations relating to alleged market misconduct, consumer finance violations, and wealth management inquires. She further is known for her experience conducting internal and governmental investigations across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America.

Representative Experience

Racial Equity Audits

• Conducted a racial equity audit on behalf of CoreCivic, the nation’s largest private owner of correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities, in response to a shareholder fund demand.  In conducting the audit, MVA analyzed CoreCivic’s impacts on nonwhite residents, their families, CoreCivic employees, and local communities, and generated a public audit report.  The report details MVA’s findings, as well as our recommendations to enhance CoreCivic’s current practices and improve outcomes for CoreCivic’s stakeholders of color. Click here for more information on this engagement
• Conducting a racial equity audit of the policies, practices, operations, and initiatives of a municipality in the Midwestern US

InternaI, Privileged Civil Rights Assessments

• Conducting an enterprise-wide internal, privileged civil rights assessment for a Fortune 50 company
• Evaluating health equity impacts on a Fortune 50 company’s employee base in conjunction with an international consultancy
• Conducting an internal, privileged assessment of race-based complaint management policies and procedures on behalf of the DEI Committee of a publicly traded company’s Board of Directors

Other Relevant Engagements

• Advising a municipality in connection with potential investigations into the death-in-custody of a Black resident
• Conducting an enterprise-wide review of conduct management practices for a national bank, including manual risk-based assessments of more than 2400 individual conduct allegations, (including those relating to discrimination and harassment) and reporting findings, trends, and recommendations to key internal stakeholders and relevant regulators
• Presiding over evidentiary hearings and issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law in amotion proceedings to remove elected officials from office. See James v. City of Monroe, No. 3:22-cv-00178-RJC-DSC, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142176, at *1 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 10, 2022)

International Highlights

• As noted, Valecia is known for her experience conducting internal and governmental investigations across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. She has represented clients in disputes, investigations, and negotiations involving international authorities, such as the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA), and the Comissão de Valores Mobiliarios (the Brazilian Securities Commission). 

DEI Highlights

Valecia has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to DEI, which has been recognized regionally and nationally by her peers in law and business a variety of industries.

• A frequent speaker on the importance of DEI in regional and national forums, Valecia served as one of five panelists at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s keynote diversity program. She spoke on innovative ways to address diversity and inclusion in the financial services sector alongside Eric Grossman, General Counsel of Morgan Stanley, Ken Miller, Deputy General Counsel of Bank of America, and Michelle Oroschakoff, Chief Legal Officer of LPL Financial. See SIFMA C&L Annual Seminar, SECS. INDUS. AND FIN. MARKETS ASS’N, https://www.sifma.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-SIFMA-CL-Annual-Seminar-Program-PDF.
• Valecia has served as a leader in the legal community with respect to DEI issues, for which she received the Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion Award in 2017. See Valecia M. McDowell – 2017 Diversity Champion Award Winner, MECKLENBURG CNTY. BAR, https://www.meckbar.org/?pg=2017-julius-l-chambers-diversity-champion-valecia-. Other recipients of this award include civil rights champion James L. Ferguson, who served as General Counsel for the ACLU for 15 years, and the Honorable Albert Diaz, the first Hispanic judge to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
• Valecia is the former Board Chair for the Community Building Initiative, a regional non-profit working to give people and organizations tools needed to fight bias, remove barriers to opportunity, and build a more equitable and just community. See About Us, COMMUNITY BUILDING INITIATIVE, https://cbicharlotte.org/about-us/. 

• Valecia was named Charlotte Woman of the Year and was a North Carolina Women of Justice honoree in 2019. See, e.g., Valecia McDowell Honored As A Woman of Justice 2019, MOORE & VAN ALLEN PLLC (Sept. 2019),  https://www.mvalaw.com/news-Valecia-McDowell-honored-as-a-Women-of-Justice-2019.
• Valecia was named to the 2020 Lawyers of Color Power List by the Diverse Partners Network. Moore & Van Allen Members Joseph Fernandez and Valecia McDowell Named To Lawyers of Color Power List, MOORE & VAN ALLEN PLLC (Jan.  2020), https://www.mvalaw.com/news-Moore-Van-Allen-members-Joseph-Fernandez-and-Valecia-McDowell-named-to-Lawyers-of-Color-Power-List
• Prior to attending law school, Valecia worked in a cardiovascular psychophysiology research laboratory at Duke University Medical Center, studying the impact of social stressors on the health of Black Americans. The research lab was led by Dr. Norman B. Anderson, the first Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Under Dr. Anderson’s leadership, Valecia presented research findings entitled “Toward Contextually-Valid Measures of Stress and Social Support in Older Blacks:  A Qualitative Study” to the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

For information on Valecia’s personal experiences and DEI perspectives and how they impact her work, please see:

• Dynamic Diversity: The changing look of N.C. executive power, BUS. NORTH CAROLINA (Feb. 1, 2021), https://businessnc.com/dynamic-diversity-the-changing-look-of-n-c-executive-power/;  
• Shedding Light (Without the Spotlight), SUPER LAWYERS (Apr. 7, 2020), https://www.superlawyers.com/north-carolina/article/shedding-light-without-the-spotlight/c5e0b0b3-7403-4eb4-a8ac-02595b7f8172.html; and
• Leading “Connected,” COMPLIANCE (Aug. 14, 2018), https://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/leading-connected/.

Notable

Valecia has been frequently recognized by her peers for excellence in the law:

• Forbes - Top 200 Lawyers in America, 2024

• Financial Times Innovative Lawyers North America, shortlisted for the "Innovative Practitioner” category, 2023

• Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in America list, 2024
• Best Lawyers in America, Litigation - Securities "Lawyer of the Year," 2023
• Best Lawyers in America, 2013-present
• Chambers & Partners USA Leaders in their Field, 2014-present
• Chambers USA - North Carolina, Litigation: General Commercial, 2014-2023, Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, 2021-2023
• Business Today Top 10 Powerhouse Lawyers Influencing White-Collar Crime Litigation in North Carolina List, 2023
• Charlotte Business Journal Power 100 List, 2023
• The Mecklenburg Times 50 Most Influential Women list, 2023
• Business North Carolina Legal Elite, Litigation, 2023
• Business North Carolina’s Power List, 2022-2023
• Super Lawyers, "Top 100" list North Carolina, 2017-2020, 2022-2024; “Top 25” list Charlotte, 2017-2024; "Top 50" list of Women North Carolina, 2020-2024; 2014-present
• Benchmark Litigation Future Stars, 2010-2017; Local Litigation Star, 2018-2024

• North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Power List, Business Defense, 2023

• Lawyers of Color "Nation's Best" list, 2019; Fifth Power List, 2020
• Julius L. Chambers Diversity Champion Award, 2017
• Senior Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America, 2009-present
• Member, Trial Law Institute
• Member, Diversity Law Institute
• Co-chair, Moore & Van Allen Diversity Committee 
• Current Board Member, Leading on Opportunity’s Council
• Current Board Member, Duke University Law School’s Board of Visitors 
• Current Board Member, Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation
• Current Board Member, Duke Law Alumnae Council
• Former General Counsel of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and Charlotte Regional Business Alliance 
• Former Board Chair, Arts & Science Council
• Former Board Chair, Community Building Initiative

News

Insights

Publications

• "Amotion sees resurgence after almost a decade”, NCLW

• "Racial Equity Audits: The New ESG Frontier" Bloomberg 

• "Diversity Culture Clashes: the Desire for and Backlash to DEI audits and interventions" Westlaw 

• "Shedding Light (without the spotlight)" Super Lawyers
• "Q&A with Moore & Van Allen's Valecia McDowell" Corporate Compliance
• "After SEC v. Graham, Have the Courts Limited the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's Reach?" Westlaw Journal Derivatives
• "Work with Your State Attorneys General to Avoid Enforcement Actions" American Banker
• Co-author, "Risks to Consider When Contemplating a Deferred Prosecution Agreement", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "5 Tips for Conducting High-Value Internal Investigations",  InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "6 Factors When Choosing Counsel in Internal Investigations", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "How to Conduct Internal Investigations", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "Lights, Action, Interview", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "Beware of Blue Collar Techniques in White Collar Investigations", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "The Nuts and Bolts of Internal Investigations", InsideCounsel.com
• Co-author, "Have Increased Government Investigations Remedied the Causes of the Financial Crisis?", Bloomberg Law Reports- Corporate Counsel
• E-Discovery in Arbitration: Leading Lawyers on Recovering Electronic Evidence, Meeting New Disclosure Guidelines and Implementing Measures to Streamline the Process (Aspatore Books’ Inside the Minds series).