The American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division 2015 Midyear Meeting Houston, TX Luncheon- Firsts: A Conversation with Trailblazers of the Bar Hilton Americas Friday, February 6 12:45 PM 2:00 PM
ROBERT GREY President, Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Robert J. Grey, Jr., was named President of LCLD in September 2014, after serving for four years as the organization s founding Executive Director. His stewardship of this national organization, made up of the chief legal officers of more than 220 major corporations and law firms, reflects his long-standing commitment to the principles of excellence, diversity, and inclusion that has been a defining feature of his adult life. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Grey is also a partner with Hunton & Williams LLP. His legal practice is focused on representing businesses in the alcohol beverage industry. In 1998, Mr. Grey was elected Chair of the American Bar Association s House of Delegates. In 2004, Mr. Grey was elected the 128 th President of the American Bar Association. Mr. Grey served as a Trustee on the Boards of Virginia Tech and Washington & Lee University. He has received the Gertrude E. Rush Award from the National Bar Association and will receive the Spirit of Excellence Award from the ABA in 2015. In 2010 Mr. Grey was appointed by President Obama, and confirmed by the Senate, to serve on the Board of the Legal Services Corporation.
THE HONORABLE BERNICE B. DONALD was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Barack Hussein Obama on December 1, 2010, and re-nominated in January 2011. She was confirmed by the Senate on September 6, 2011. Prior to joining the Court of Appeals, Judge Donald served on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, where she was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton in December 1995. Judge Donald served as Judge of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee from June 1988 to January 1996. She was the first African American woman in the history of the United States to serve as a bankruptcy judge. When she was elected to the General Sessions Criminal Court in 1982, she became the first African American woman to serve as a judge in the history of the State of Tennessee. Judge Donald received her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law where she has served as an adjunct faculty member. She frequently serves as faculty for the Federal Judicial Center and the National Judicial College. An internationally recognized legal scholar, Judge Donald has lectured and trained judges around the world for many years. Judge Donald has served as faculty for numerous international programs, including Romania, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Bosnia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Thailand, Armenia, Jamaica, and Manila. In 2003, Judge Donald led a People to People delegation to Johannesburg and Capetown, South Africa and traveled to Zimbabwe to monitor the trial of a judge accused of judicial misconduct. Judge Donald has served as President of the American Bar Foundation, the National Association of Women Judges, and the Association of Women Attorneys. In June 2005, Judge Donald co-founded 4-Life, a skills training and enrichment program for students ages 6 to 15 designed to teach children to become positive productive citizens. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Stax Museum of American Soul and the Stax Academy Charter School. Judge Donald has been the recipient of over 100 awards for professional, civic, and community activities, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Memphis, the Martin Luther King Community Service Award, and the Benjamin Hooks Award presented in 2002 by the Memphis Bar Foundation. In 2013, Judge Donald was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society, and in August of 2013 she was featured in the Federal Lawyer Magazine. During the 2013 annual meeting of the National Bar Association, Judge Donald received the William H. Hastie Award. The Hastie Award is the Judicial Council s highest award and is presented to recognize excellence in legal and judicial scholarship and demonstrated commitment to justice under the law. In 2013, Judge Donald also received the Difference Makers Award from the Solo, Small Firm & General Practice Division of the American Bar Association (ABA), and the Pioneer Award from her fellow classmates at East Side High. Most recently, Judge Donald received the Justice William Brennan Award by the University of Virginia in January of 2014, and the Pickering Award from the Senior Lawyers Division of the ABA in August of 2014.
DENNIS WAYNE ARCHER Dennis W. Archer is Chairman and CEO of Dennis W. Archer PLLC and Chairman Emeritus of Dickinson Wright PLLC, a Detroit-based law firm with more than 350 attorneys, with six offices in Michigan, Las Vegas, Nashville, Phoenix, Toronto, Columbus, and Washington, DC. He sits on the corporate board of Masco Corporation. Archer served two four-year terms as mayor of the city of Detroit (1994-2001) and earned national and international respect for his success in changing Detroit's image and direction. In 2000, Mayor Archer was named Public Official of the Year by Governing magazine. Archer served on the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and was president of the National League of Cities from 2000-2001. He received an Award of Excellence and was named 1998 Newsmaker of the Year by Engineering News-Record magazine, a sister publication of Business Week. He has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans by Ebony magazine; and one of the 100 Most Powerful Attorneys in the United States by the National Law Journal. Archer was named one of the 25 Most Dynamic Mayors in America by Newsweek magazine. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Western Michigan University and taught learning disabled students in the Detroit Public Schools. Archer earned his Juris Doctor from Detroit College of Law in 1970. He began practicing law thereafter, working as a trial lawyer and a partner in several Detroit firms, serving as associate professor of the Detroit College of Law and adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School. In 1985, Governor James Blanchard appointed Archer an Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He was elected to an eight-year term the following year. In his final year on the bench in 1990, Archer was named the most respected judge in Michigan by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. Archer has long been active in the organized bar. He was the first person of color elected president of the American Bar Association (2003-2004) as well as the State Bar of Michigan. He has also served as president of the Wolverine Bar Association and the National Bar Association. Archer is a Life Member of the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation and the National Bar Association, a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers, a Fellow of the College of Law Office Management and Life Member of the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference. Archer is married to Trudy DunCombe Archer, retired Judge of Michigan's 36 th District Court. They have two sons, Dennis W. Archer, Jr. and Vincent DunCombe Archer, and two grandsons.
MARY T. TORRES Ms. Torres primarily handles civil litigation matters, and has extensive experience in civil rights, employment, insurance, premises liability and governmental liability related matters. She is a member of Beall & Biehler Law Firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ms. Torres is a thirteenth generation native New Mexican who received her bachelor s degree cum laude from New Mexico Tech in 1983. She was an educator in her hometown of Socorro, New Mexico, at Socorro High School for six years before attending law school at the University of New Mexico, where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 1992. Ms. Torres is very active in bar activities on a state and national level. Ms. Torres was President of the State Bar of New Mexico in 2002, and she was the first Hispanic woman to serve as President of any State Bar Association in this country. She served for ten years as the chair of the State Bar of New Mexico s Committee on Diversity, is a past chair of the Young Lawyer s Division, and is quite active in the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association. On a national level, Ms. Torres is Secretary of the American Bar Association, serving as the first Hispanic woman to hold this position; in her new term as secretary, she serves on the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association. Ms. Torres began her three-year term as Secretary of the American Bar Association in August 2014. She is a former State Delegate to the American Bar Association, and has served on various House of Delegates committees. She is active in the ABA s Minority Caucus to the House of Delegates, and just completed a three year term as secretary of the Caucus. She served on the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents from 2002-2005, and served as the first Hispanic female president of that organization in 2010. She is a past member of the Bar Activities and Services Committee, the Committee on Public Education, and the ABA s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. She served as Chair of the Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity for the 2012-2013 year. She has served on three presidential appointments committees,