Diane Bettino, a partner in Reed Smith’s Financial Industry Group, was one of just four honorees in the Innovators category. A team of Reed Smith finance lawyers led by partner Daniel Peck is one of eight honorees in the Dealmakers category.

Bettino is managing partner of Reed Smith’s Princeton office. She defends companies from consumer-based class actions and mass actions, and represents them in government investigations and before regulatory agencies.

Bettino developed and launched a sophisticated digital application that creates high quality legal briefs for high-volume litigation matters for financial services clients. It generates filing documents for similar matters in a fraction of the time formerly required. The application delivers “win-win” outcomes, significantly lowering costs for clients with absolutely no reduction in the quality of legal services.

“It is important to incentivize innovation within an organization. In my experience, our clients have come to expect innovative ideas, and they value the law firms which invest in innovation and technology,” Bettino said.

The finance lawyers gained notice for having high watermark years in spite of adversity in the environment. Led by Princeton-based Reed Smith partner Daniel Peck, the group forged new relationships and worked on significant new transactions for major banks, institutional lenders and other clients in the financial services and commercial real estate sectors. Peck shrugged off disruption caused by COVID-19, rapidly refilled the client pipeline, and the team responded to adversity with new initiatives.

“In the thick of the pandemic in 2021, we were able to drive significant additional business from our lender clients opposite national homebuilders and sophisticated real estate investment trusts and institutional developers,” Peck said.

The honorees will be recognized at a gala on Sept. 29. Visit the NJ Legal Awards event site.

No aspect of this information has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.