Lauren Buford is Senior Counsel, Tort Litigation at Walgreens. In this role, she is responsible for guiding the day-to-day management of professional liability, product liability, and general liability litigation activities for the South and most of the Midwest. Prior to joining Walgreens, Lauren gained nearly 15 years of litigation experience working in the public and private sectors including an Am Law 100 law firm and two municipal corporations. She successfully tried many cases to verdict and served as national litigation counsel for several Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, she practiced in heavily regulated areas of law including medical malpractice, pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, and toxic tort litigation.
She was sworn in as a Director of the WBAI in June of 2021. She is currently the co-chair of the Diversity Committee and the Civil Litigation Committee. She also served on the Annual Dinner committee and was co-chair of this year’s Judicial Reception committee. Additionally, Lauren is an adjunct professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She teaches a mandatory 1L course entitled “Professional Identity Formation” which helps students recognize and eliminate personal bias and build awareness about how diversity and inclusion is critical to professional development and the practice of law.
Lauren is a graduate of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana. She earned bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Political Science for the University of Southern California where she was a four-year varsity member on the rowing team.
