* Licensed only in Illinois and California

Sharon Jones serves as the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Haynes Boone, helping to strategize, lead, and implement the firm’s diversity plan. Sharon is a partner in the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group, leveraging her background as a federal prosecutor and as a litigator and counselor with Fortune 500 corporations and private law firms to help Haynes Boone clients with practical solutions to their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Sharon will be a member of the ESG cross- disciplinary group at the firm.

Before joining Haynes Boone, Sharon was the President/CEO of Jones Diversity, a consulting firm that worked with Am Law 100 firms nationwide on best practices. Additionally, she previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago, where she conducted federal grand jury investigations and trials in high profile white-collar criminal cases.

Sharon has practiced law and been a community leader over a 25-year career, including positions as a federal prosecutor, with major law firms and with Fortune 500 Corporations. She has served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Chicago Urban League, a not for profit focused on African American economic development.

Sharon is a co-author of two bar association reports providing consulting advice to Los Angeles County: The City in Crisis—A Report by the Special Advisor to the Board of Police Commissioners on the Civil Disorder in Los Angeles and Report of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Advisory Committee for the Office of the District Attorney.

Sharon has served in leadership roles on numerous not for profit boards as well as a past President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association (2010-2012) and was responsible for the launch of the HLSA Global Women’s Alliance. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession and the Federal Defenders Program Board, among others. Sharon has received numerous awards including the Chicago Bar Association’s Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges Award) and the Black Women Lawyer’s Visionary Award for Women Making History for Making a Difference. She is the author of “Mastering the Game: Career Strategies for Success” which provides the unwritten rules for career success for women and diverse professionals.

Sharon is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College. She is licensed in Illinois. She is admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bar Admissions

California

Illinois

Education

Harvard Law School, Law, 1982, J.D.

Harvard College, Undergraduate, 1977