We are readying students for the transition to work in ways I could have scarcely imagined when I went to law school.

Last school year, there were 132 courses in this broad category— the largest number of offerings during my tenure as dean and ostensibly ever. This boom in practical skills training is an extension of our celebrated clinical education program, which is going strong after 46 years.

There has long been a debate about how students should spend the second and third years of law school. More than 20 years ago, the authors of a seminal report on law school training from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching put forth what many were thinking: focus more on practice. And the American Bar Association eventually ran with that recommendation, requiring law students to earn six credits in experiential learning in order to graduate.

The achievement of a diverse workforce is a goal that cannot be left to chance. Today’s business leaders must act purposefully in establishing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their strategic plans. From attracting the best talent and valuing and investing in employees, to providing excellent service to a diverse client base, diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential in today’s competitive environment. Law firms may need to be first movers in some instances, but ultimately must take a methodical, deliberate, and reflective approach to building and cultivating a diverse workforce.

At Ballard, we came to understand that true diversity — representation across varied perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences — was possible only if we committed to two essential companion principles: equity and inclusion. Inclusion happens when we engage and integrate colleagues from all backgrounds, empowering them to contribute their perspectives and ideas. We incorporated the concept of inclusion into our diversity strategy in 2014. The adoption of equity into our diversity and inclusion strategy, in November 2021, was a natural evolution that reflects our firm culture and society at large. Our commitment to equity ensures that everyone has access to resources and opportunities that lead to success and removes barriers for those who may not have had full access to resources and opportunities in the past.

Ballard has sought to be a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leader. Our efforts have been led by a full-time diversity professional since 2006, and in 2011, when we elevated the position to Chief Diversity Officer, we were among just a few large law firms to have taken that step. Being a thought leader does not necessarily mean we value being a first mover in all things, however.

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council wanted the firm to be thoughtful in incorporating equity as part of our diversity and inclusion core values. We sought to understand and define what a commitment to equity would mean for Ballard, how it would look and feel, and how we would achieve it. Our intention was not to add equity as a performative gesture or out of social pressure, but as a genuine, informed, and deliberate shift in mindset and behavior.

Why add equity? The killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many others. Hate crimes targeting Asian Americans. Voting restrictions that disproportionately impact communities of color. A heightened awareness of racial injustice. Pandemic-related gender and racial disparities. These and other societal scars shifted expectations; leaders were expected not just to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but to drive social change.

“To Wendella Fox, with fond memories of a superb student and with admiration for a superb lawyer,” the judge wrote in the just released In The Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process.

Fox was and remains astonished by his generosity. “I was a young whippersnapper back then, and he felt that way about me?”

Fox developed a lifelong friendship with Judge Higginbotham after taking his class on race and the law as a Penn undergraduate. The judge gave her a recommendation for law school and signed a certificate for her admission to the Pennsylvania bar.

In the Information Age, data has emerged as the coin of the realm; as a result, control of and access to this knowledge has become a hotly contested issue in Washington, D.C.

“We’re playing catch-up as we try to address the critical privacy concerns our new digital age has wrought,” Scanlon cautioned her audience.

She delivered her remarks during the morning keynote address of “Privacy & Law in the Modern Age,” a symposium sponsored by local college chapters of the American Constitution Society (ACS) and the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition (CTIC).

Other finalists for the award were: Kristen Dama L’07, Managing Attorney of SSI and Medical-Legal Partnership at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and Jessica Feierman L’99, Senior Managing Director at Juvenile Law Center and Adjunct Professor at the Law School.

The Alumni Impact Awards are given to Penn Carey Law alumni who have demonstrated a passionate commitment to public service throughout their career and who have excelled in using innovative thinking to produce concrete and sustainable solutions to societal problems. The work of the Alumni Impact Awards’ honorees has substantially improved the lives of the country’s most vulnerable populations.

“The Alumni Impact Awards are intended to honor leaders and innovators in public interest law, and this year’s finalists represent the wide-ranging and all-encompassing legal advocacy expected of Penn Carey Law alums,” said Ayanna Williams, Associate Director for the Toll Public Interest Service Corps. “Deuel Ross has been instrumental in securing voting rights and desegregating schools. Kristen Dama has engaged in multiple successful initiatives to help people with disabilities and low-income families in getting needed assistance. Jessica Feierman has worked to eliminate costs, fines, and fees in the juvenile justice system. We were thrilled to honor them and look forward to commemorating their future accomplishments.”

Thanks to a transformational gift from the Robert and Jane Toll Foundation, founded by Robert Toll L’66 and Jane Toll GSE’66, Ross was awarded $10,000, and Dama and Feierman received $5,000 each.

The event took place in conjunction with the Pro Bono Recognition Event.

The LAS awards were presented to Jena Griswold L’11, Damon Hewitt L’00, Tsiwen Law L’84, the Honorable Gene E.K. Pratter L’75, Ed Rock L’83, Andrew Jay Schwartzman L’71, and Tiffany Southerland SPP’08, L’11.

Griswold and Southerland were recipients of the Young Alumni Award, which recognizes extraordinary achievement in the 10 years following graduation.

Griswold, the Secretary of State in Colorado, has dedicated herself to the protection and expansion of voting rights, instituting automatic voter registration and increasing polling locations and mail-in drop boxes across the state. She was the director of the Washington, D.C., office of former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and served as a voter protection attorney for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.

Southerland is Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Troutman Pepper in Washington, D.C. She held similar positions at Pepper Hamilton and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She is a Lecturer of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a member of the advisory board of the Law School’s Future of the Profession Initiative.

The LAS awards were presented to Jena Griswold L’11, Damon Hewitt L’00, Tsiwen Law L’84, the Honorable Gene E.K. Pratter L’75, Ed Rock L’83, Andrew Jay Schwartzman L’71, and Tiffany Southerland SPP’08, L’11.

Griswold and Southerland were recipients of the Young Alumni Award, which recognizes extraordinary achievement in the 10 years following graduation.

Griswold, the Secretary of State in Colorado, has dedicated herself to the protection and expansion of voting rights, instituting automatic voter registration and increasing polling locations and mail-in drop boxes across the state. She was the director of the Washington, D.C., office of former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and served as a voter protection attorney for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.

Southerland is Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Troutman Pepper in Washington, D.C. She held similar positions at Pepper Hamilton and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. She is a Lecturer of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a member of the advisory board of the Law School’s Future of the Profession Initiative.

“The classic symbol of disability is the wheelchair, or you think of white canes,” Harris said. “When people have a less visible disability — where, for instance, COVID and long COVID are going to fall — there’s this deep-seated distrust about accessing legal entitlements and exercising rights, primarily because of a pervasive fear of fraud that under­writes disability law.”

Harris is referring to President Biden’s proclamation last July that long COVID can qualify as a disability. She is referring as well to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) subsequent decision to update its guidance to include symptoms like brain fog and difficulty remembering or concentrating, substantially limited respiratory functions, and chest pains as impairments that may meet the definition of disability under federal disability laws.

self-proclaimed car enthusiast, Aren Raisinghani C’19, ENG’19, GEN’21, ML’21 recalls frequenting McLaren and Fisker dealerships near his high school in Palo Alto, California.

Now as a data engineer at Tesla’s Fremont office, Raisinghani is thrilled to combine his love for cars with engineering ingenuity. He serves on Tesla’s safety and restraints team, where he focuses on crash safety. “We’re essentially working on safety for all Tesla cars — airbags, seatbelts, seats,” Raisinghani said.

At Penn, he studied computer science and cognitive science in the undergraduate artificial intelligence program and earned his Master of Science degree in systems engineering, which looks at optimization through a mathematical lens. At the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, he focused on business and technology. After interning at Tesla, he was happy to join the company permanently.

The award celebrates Allen, former President of the APA Eastern Division, for her extraordinary blend of scholarship and leadership.

“This award means the world to me,” Allen said. “It reflects the unexpected success of my interdisciplinary commitments as a scholar, teacher, and mentor. It was remarkable to have been the first Black woman APA president in 2018–19 and it’s a special achievement, as a Black woman, to be receiving the highest award for service to the discipline.”

In a separate ceremony, Allen received the 2022 Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Privacy Award at the 10th Annual BCLT Privacy Law Forum.

hen Eleanor Barrett L’05 was in law school, she had a thin catalog of experiential learning courses to choose from — a handful of clinics or appellate and trial advocacy classes.

The situation is far different today thanks to Barrett’s diligent efforts as Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs.

How about 132 experiential learning courses — from transactional to litigation to regulatory to soft skills such as legal writing and public speaking? Penn Carey Law students can now pitch venture capitalists for start-up funding in real time, practice challenges to administrative rules, and perform substantive work in judicial chambers during the semester.

Take externships alone. Since 2010, the number of students enrolled in externships each semester has increased from 10 to 67, including almost 30 students during the spring 2022 semester who worked with the Law School to create their own new and varied placements.

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