Harvard law professor to conclude MLK Series

Wilkins

David B. Wilkins, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, will speak at the Vanderbilt University Law School about theexperience of black lawyers in corporate law firms on Jan. 30.

The speech, which is free and open to the public, begins at 3:10 p.m. in the Renaissance Room of the Law Building. A reception with Wilkins follows at 4 p.m.

Wilkins' speech, the 2001 Martin Luther King Jr. Law School Lecture, is based on his forthcoming book, The New Social Engineers: The Making of the Black Corporate Bar and What It Means for America, for which he has interviewed more than 200 lawyers.

In a recent article, "Five Reasons Why Law Firms Are Not Making Progress on Diversity," Wilkins asserted that, "Although most firms have a handful of minority associates and some even have minority partners, the fact that the overall percentage of minority associates and partners has barely budged in more than a decade is, and ought to be, a source of both frustration and embarrassment for all concerned.

Wilkins later concludes that "firms and diversity advocates need to examine how the experience of minority lawyers suggests the need for new standards for helping firms to remain competitive."

A graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law School, Wilkins joined the Harvard Law School faculty in 1986 after clerking for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. In addition to the subject of black lawyers in corporate practice, he has written extensively on the legal profession and the relationship between identity and professional roles. He has taught courses on civil procedure and the legal profession.