Diana C. White has been promoted to executive director of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago after 10 years as deputy director of special projects.

She will replace retiring executive director Sheldon R. Roodman on July 13. Roodman, who has held the post for 30 years, will be honored during LAF's annual luncheon Thursday, June 28, at the Palmer House Hilton.

A 1981 honors graduate of the University of Chicago Law School who has a doctorate in Latin and Greek, White was a partner in Jenner & Block before she joined the LAF staff in 1997.

She served on the board of the Chicago Council of Lawyers from 1999 to 2003 and was president of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice from 2003 to 2006.

“The challenge for us in the post-Sheldon era is to continue to provide high-quality legal services to poor people throughout the Chicago metropolitan area,” she said, and to “become more involved in the community we serve.”

LAF board president Roger G. Wilson, who headed the search committee, said “Diana White impressed everyone with her legal talents, her dedication to clients, and her leadership abilities.”