Merchant & Gould is pleased to announce that attorney Loretta L. Freeman has been named in The National Black Lawyers – Top 100 and Top 40 Under 40 lists for 2015, her first year to receive these recognitions.

The National Black Lawyers – Top 100 is a professional honorary organization composed of premier lawyers from across the country who exemplify superior qualifications in their area of specialty. This national invitation-only organization provides networking, marketing and business opportunities for the accomplished and experienced lawyers in 35 practice areas. Only the top 100 lawyers from each state who are actively practicing in the select specialty practices are eligible for invitation. The selection process for this honor is based on a multi-phase process based upon objective and uniformly applied criteria which includes peer nominations combined with third party research.

Loretta is listed in Intellectual Property, one of the 35 areas of specialty the organization recognizes, for Minnesota.

An associate attorney in the Minneapolis office of Merchant & Gould, Loretta practices intellectual law with a focus on trademark clearance, registration, and enforcement, as well as patent prosecution and preparation of opinions on patentability and validity. Previously, Loretta spent eleven years as an engineer at 3M, where she helped develop and commercialize products in technology areas such as adhesives, non-wovens, micro-reflective lenses, and micro-replication. As a developer, inventor, and leader at 3M, she has helped prepare patent applications, assisted in filing seven design patents, and has aligned patents with products for patent marking purposes.

Loretta earned a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, cum laude, from Florida A&M University, where she was also a member of Tau Beta Pi. She is an active member of several professional law organizations on the community and national levels.

Learn more at http://www.nbltop100.org