Munger, Tolles & Olson Mourns Passing of Co-Managing Partner Sandra Seville-Jones

Munger, Tolles & Olson is deeply saddened to announce the loss of longtime Co-Managing Partner Sandra Seville-Jones. Ms. Seville-Jones passed away in the early morning hours of March 9, 2019 due to complications following surgery.

“This is an enormous loss for our firm, our clients and the entire legal profession,” said Ron Olson, the firm’s name partner. “Sandra was a close friend and colleague, a beloved firm leader, a champion of diversity and junior lawyers, and a great legal mind. She owned the values our firm most cherishes and enhanced them every day she was with us. Our firm is shocked and deeply saddened by Sandra’s passing, and our thoughts are with her family.”

Ms. Seville-Jones, a corporate lawyer who joined the firm in 1986, was serving her final term as co-managing partner, a role she held since 2009. She was instrumental in furthering the firm’s culture of excellence in legal service, as well as overseeing its expansion to the East Coast with the opening of a Washington, D.C. office in 2016.

In her practice, Ms. Seville-Jones specialized in corporate, business and securities law. She represented companies in various industries, including energy, entertainment, gaming and manufacturing.

She was also an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the legal industry and at the law firm, frequently speaking at conferences focused on women in law, serving as a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and championing firm benefits to support working parents, such as subsidized childcare and backup care.

Ms. Seville-Jones passionately gave back to her community, including by co-founding the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate Commission, which supports academic debate teams in Los Angeles area public schools. She served on the Manhattan Beach Planning Commission, including as chair of the Commission, and also served on the boards of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Hope Street Friends, a child care center founded by the firm under her leadership, located across the street from the firm in downtown Los Angeles.

Ms. Seville-Jones earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, which highlighted her career in a “Women in Leadership” feature in the school’s Fall 2017 magazine.