Friday, September 12
8:00 am – 8:00 pm: Registration & Welcome Center
8:00 am – 12:00 pm: Class Visitations
10:00 – 11:30 am: Plenary Session: Generations of Change – The Evolution of Leadership
-Sponsored by Tony Chase ’80
Panelists:
- Devon W. Carbado ’94, The Elihu Root Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Distinguished Research Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
- Marilyn Holifield ’72, Senior Partner, Holland & Knight LLP
- Stephanie Robinson ’94, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Founding Partner, KNEXT Strategies, LLC. - Kristin Turner ’17, Founder & Principal, MisfitMinds Collective
- Bianca Williams-Alonzo ’26, President, Black Law Students Association, Harvard Law School
Committee Lead and Moderator:
- John Mathews II ’07, Chief of Staff, Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office
12:00 – 2:15 pm: Celebration Luncheon: HLS Faculty TED Talks on Recent Scholarship
Speakers Include:
- Nikolas Bowie ’14, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
- Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
- Idriss Fofana, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Affiliate Assistant Professor of History, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. ’94, Jesse Climenko Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop, Harvard Law School
- Imani Perry ’00, Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Harvard Radcliffe Institute
3:00 – 4:30 pm: Harvard Law School Association Award Presentation and Fireside Conversation with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ’96 and David B. Wilkins ’80
-Sponsored by Cari Katrice Dawson ’93
5:00 – 6:30 pm: Plenary Session: The Evolving and Future Role of General Counsel: From Business Executive to Global Strategist to Moral Compass
-Sponsored by Chaka Patterson ’94
Panelists:
- Vanessa L. Allen Sutherland, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel, Phillips 66
- Sashi Brown ’02, President, Baltimore Ravens
- Reggie Hedgebeth ’96, Executive Vice President of External Affairs and Chief Legal Officer, Enbridge, Inc.
- Rashida La Lande, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, The Estée Lauder Companies
- Sabastian V. Niles ’06, President and Chief Legal Officer, Salesforce
- Desiree Ralls-Morrison ’92, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Legal Officer, McDonald’s
Committee Lead and Moderator:
- Burt Fealing ’95, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Stainability Officer, and Corporate Secretary, Southwire Company
6:30 – 10:00 pm: Welcome Celebration Reception
-Sponsored by Melvin F. Williams, Jr. ’89
Saturday, September 13
7:00 am – 8:00 pm: Registration & Welcome Center
7:30 – 8:45 am: Morning Connections & Continental Breakfast
9:00 am – 10:00 am: A Conversation on the Harvard Law School-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Connection
Speakers:
- Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. ’98, Dean and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
- Eloise Lawrence, Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Faculty Director, Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
10:30 am – 12:00 pm: Plenary Session: Coalition Building: Reinvigorating the Spirit of the Original Civil Rights Alliance
-Sponsored by Deirdre Stanley ’89
Panelists:
- Erwin S. Chemerinsky ’78, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley Law
- Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice, California Supreme Court; Honorable S. William Green Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
- Tania Tetlow ’95, President, Fordham University
- Deborah N. Archer, Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Experiential Education & Clinical Programs, New York University School of Law; President, ACLU
- Mussab Ali ’23, Candidate, Ali for Jersey City
Moderator:
- Martha L. Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University
12:30 – 2:45 pm: Celebration Luncheon: Law, Leadership, and Legacy: The Impact of Harvard’s Black Lawyers
-Sponsored by Burt M. Fealing ’95
Speakers:
- David B. Wilkins ’80, Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, Faculty Director, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School
- Julieanna L. Richardson ’80, Founder and Executive Director, The HistoryMakers
- Guy-Uriel Charles, Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Harvard Law School
Celebration Award Recipient and Keynote Speaker:
Sherrilyn Ifill, Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor of Civil Rights and Founder of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy, Howard University School of Law
3:15 – 4:00 pm: CBA Group Photo
4:30 – 5:45 pm: Concurrent Sessions
AI and Civil Rights: Guardrails or Gatekeepers?
–Sponsored by Sandra D. Grannum ’86
Introduction:
- Intisar A. Rabb, Professor of Law and Director, Program in Islamic Law, Harvard Law School; Professor of History, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Panelists:
- David K. Gaston ’06, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) and Lead Technology Counsel, National Labor Relations Board
- Alicia Lowery Rosenbaum ’95, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Cybersecurity Technology and Trust, Salesforce
- Casselle Smith ’10, Partner, Troutman Pepper Locke LLP
Committee Leads and Moderators:
- Melanie Cook ’90, Chief Executive Officer, Veritas Management Group, Inc.
- Robin Dunson ’90, Founder & President, Ocean 79 Group; Former Chief Legal Officer, Segra
The Transformative Leadership of Black Lawyers as Defenders of Democracy and Advocates for Justice
–Sponsored by Richard Taylor ’77 and Kathy Taylor, Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund
Introduction:
- Alan Jenkins ’89, Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School
Panelists:
- Elise C. Boddie ’96, James V. Campbell Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
- Kenneth C. Frazier ’78, Retired Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc.; Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst; Fellow, Harvard Corporation
- Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale ’91, Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and Corporate Secretary, Cummins Inc.
- Ronald Machen ’94, Partner, WilmerHale
- Michael Posner, Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics & Finance; Director, Center for Business and Human Rights; NYU Stern School of Business
Committee Leads and Moderator:
- Ronald Machen ’94, Partner, WilmerHale
- Chaka Patterson ’94, Founder & CEO, ChakaStrategy™ (Moderator)
From Law to Leadership: Harvard Lawyers Building Power in Government
Introduction:
- Annette Gordon-Reed ’84, Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of History, Harvard University
Panelists:
- Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. ’99, Manhattan District Attorney, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
- Antonio Delgado ’05, Lieutenant Governor, New York
- Congressman Glenn Ivey (MD-04) ’86, United States House of Representatives (Moderator)
- Ruthzee Louijeune ’13, President, Boston City Council
- Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (AL-07) ’92, United States House of Representatives
Committee Lead:
- Spencer Overton ’93, the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Law School Education: Protecting Access, Defeating Threats, and Promoting the Next Generation of Legal Professionals
–Sponsored by Christopher P. Reynolds ’86 and Dr. Arlene J. Ford ’87
Panelists:
- Michele Alexandre ’00, Dean and Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago Law School
- Jelani Jefferson Exum ’04, Dean and Rose DiMartino & Karen Sue Smith Professor of Law, St. John’s University Law School
- A. Benjamin Spencer ’01, Dean, William & Mary Law School
- Verna Williams ’88, CEO, Equal Justice Works
- Michaele N. Turnage Young ’06, Senior Counsel and Co-Manager of the Equal Protection Initiative, Legal Defense Fund
Committee Lead and Moderator:
- Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. ’98, Dean and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
Arts, Media and Entertainment: Storytelling, Representation and Resistance
–Sponsored by Cooley LLP
Introduction:
- Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School; Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Professor of History, Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Panelists:
- Debra Lee ’80, Founder, Leading Women Defined; CEO Emeritus, BET Networks
- Valerie Mitchell Johnston ’93, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Sesame Street Workshop
- Lacey Schwartz Delgado ’03, Writer, Director, Producer
- John V. Meigs, Jr. ’95, Partner, Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox LLP
Committee Leads and Moderator:
- Tona Boyd ’09, Civil Rights Lawyer (Moderator)
- Tim Wilkins ’93, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Former Global Partner for Client Sustainability, Freshfields
Opportunities in Africa Given U.S. Disengagement
Introduction:
- Dehlia Umunna, Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Criminal Justice Institute, Harvard Law School
Panelists:
- Judith F. Aidoo-Saltus ’87, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Caswell Capital Partners Ghana Limited
- Teresa H. Clarke ’88, Chairman & CEO, Africa.com; Chair, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; Chair, Friends of the Legal Resources Centre of South Africa
- Walter C. Jones ’88, Director, Investments, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
- Roger L. Patton ’88, Co-Founder, General Counsel and Head of Business Development, Africa Creative Agency
Committee Lead and Moderator:
- Shemin V. Proctor ’90, Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
6:30 – 7:30 pm: Celebration Cocktail Reception
6:30 – 10:00 pm: Celebration Gala Cocktail Reception and Dinner
–Sponsored in memory of Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. ’78
Welcome:
- Cari K. Dawson ’93, Partner, Alston & Bird LLP
Celebration Award Presentation:
- Dale LeFebvre ’98, Executive Chairman and Founder, 3.5.7.11
Celebration Award Recipients:
- Kenneth I. Chenault ‘76, Chairman & Managing Director, General Catalyst, Fellow, Harvard Corporation,
Former Chairman & CEO, American Express - Kenneth C. Frazier ’78, Retired Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc., Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives, General Catalyst and Fellow, Harvard Corporation
- Adebayo O. Ogunlesi ’79, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Global Infrastructure Partners, BlackRock
Charles Hamilton Houston Medal of Freedom Recipient and Keynote Speaker: Bryan Stevenson ’85, Founder and Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative
Sunday, September 14
9:30 – 11:30 am: “For the Souls of Black Folks:” Sunday Service and Celebration of Life
Speaker:
- Natosha Reid Rice ’97, Vice President, Global Housing Opportunities and Mission Engagement, Habitat for Humanity International; Minister for Public Life, All Saints’ Episcopal Church
11:30 am – 1:30 pm: Farewell Brunch