Pittsburgh attorney Kimberly A. Brown has been named the new president of the Allegheny County Bar Association for the year starting July 1.

Ms. Brown, a partner at Downtown firm Thorp Reed & Armstrong LLP, follows former President Jay A. Blechman. She was inducted on June 19.

Ms. Brown's first priority as president is to open the bar association's Institute for Gender Equality this fall, a press release today said.

In addition to being a fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation and a member the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Ms. Brown is a part of numerous legal committees, including the Women in the Law Division's Gender Bias Subcommittee, which addresses gender bias complaints in the legal profession.

She graduated from the University of Dayton with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1986, and Duke University School of Law in 1989.