Events
2024 George Boyer Vashon Lecture, The Impact of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard: From the Classroom to the Boardroom
May 3, 2024
| Philadelphia (Live and Virtual)
| The Westin Philadelphia
Duane Morris LLP presented the 2024 George Boyer Vashon Lecture, The Impact of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard: From the Classroom to the Boardroom, on Friday, May 3, 2024.
Welcome Address
Matthew A. Taylor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Duane Morris LLP
Opening Remarks
Joseph K. West, Trial Partner and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Duane Morris LLP
Keynote Speaker
Antonio Garcia Padilla, Former President, University of Puerto Rico
Former Dean, University of Puerto Rico Law School
Member of the ABA Accreditation Council
ABA Accreditation Council
Panelists
Adanwimo “Ada” Okafor, General Counsel and Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer, American Board of Surgery
Thomas G. Servodidio, Vice Chairman, Duane Morris LLP
Dariely Rodriguez, Deputy Chief Counsel, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Sozi Tulante, General Counsel, Form Energy
Closing Remarks
Umica Anderson-Howard, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Duane Morris LLP
About the 2024 George Boyer Vashon Lecture
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina effectively ended race-based college admissions programs. Beyond undoing decades of affirmative action efforts in higher education, the Harvard and UNC decisions will have far-reaching implications and consequences. Our panelists will discuss the immediate impact of the Supreme Court decisions, how universities are responding, what the future holds for D&I efforts in corporate America and other areas that might be targeted by new legal challenges.
About the George Boyer Vashon Lecture
The George Boyer Vashon Lecture honors the life of George B. Vashon (b. 1824) by exploring issues of justice and fairness. In 2010, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court addressed the wrongness of discrimination against Mr. Vashon based upon race. In that same year, the Vashon Lecture was launched. The George Boyer Vashon Lecture is an opportunity for all of us to look to the future while we examine and learn from the past.
Mr. Vashon was a noted African American legal scholar and abolitionist. He twice sought admission to practice law in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, but was rejected in both cases because of his race. In October 2010, after Mr. Vashon’s great-grandson, Duane Morris’ former Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Nolan N. Atkinson Jr., and others petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Mr. Vashon was officially admitted posthumously to the bar of the courts of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
As a teenager, alongside his father who was an abolitionist and well-respected leader in the Black community, Mr. Vashon co-founded the Pittsburgh Anti-Slavery Society in 1838. He attended Oberlin College, where he was the first African American to receive a bachelor’s degree. After he was denied the right to practice law in Pennsylvania, one week later β using the same credentials β he was admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court. He moved to New York and became the first licensed African American attorney in that state. Later returning to Pittsburgh, Mr. Vashon became a principal at an African American public school and served as president of Avery College. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he became one of the first Black professors at Howard University.