Robert J. Grey, Jr., was named President of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (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 longstanding commitment to the principles of excellence, diversity, and inclusion that has been a defining feature of his adult life.
Founded in 2009, LCLD is an action-based organization that is working to correct an historical imbalance between a relatively closed legal profession and an increasingly diverse U.S. population.
Grey, an attorney from Richmond, Virginia, knows that transforming that status quo is no easy task in a tradition-bound profession that has been slow to open its doors to women and minorities, especially during a time of economic uncertainty.
Yet he is convinced that LCLD is on track to succeed.
“We’re working to build a profession unencumbered by outmoded ideas that obstruct talented attorneys rather than develop their potential,” says Grey. “That emphasis on human development puts us on the right side of history, so to speak.
“Also, the members of LCLD are people who don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. From the very beginning, they’ve been personally committed to fostering open and free access to opportunity for all talented individuals, regardless of color, gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or disability.”
Under Grey’s leadership, the membership of LCLD has developed a range of programs designed to create a new and more diverse generation of leaders in the law, by offering intensive professional development opportunities at various stages of a legal career, from law school to corner office.
Since 2011, LCLD has rolled out a law school mentoring program that has served nearly 2300 diverse law students across the country, connecting students with attorney-mentors in member organizations. It has developed a 1L Scholars program designed to give hundreds of elite first law students meaningful internships at member corporations and law firms. And it has launched an exemplary Fellows program, which has given more than 600 partner-level attorneys a career boost through a year-long, rigorous program of leadership development, skill building, and networking.
The Fellows program has been a game-changer, says Grey.
“This is the next generation of leaders in the law, and the Fellows themselves are taking advantage of the program beyond our highest expectations. We’ve had Fellows become general counsel of corporations, open their own law firms, accept judgeships—a record of achievement that grows every year. Fellows also report much higher rates of satisfaction in the workplace, lower rates of social isolation, and higher sight-lines for their career trajectories. While we can’t take credit for all of this, LCLD is definitely making a difference.”
In addition to his leadership of LCLD, Grey is also a partner with Hunton & Williams LLP and serves as Vice Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. His legal practice is focused on representing businesses in administrative, regulatory, and legislative matters. Renowned for his ability to create consensus among adversaries, he has often been called upon to serve as a neutral in commercial mediations.
In 2004 Grey was elected President of the American Bar Association, the second African American in history to serve in that position. During his term as ABA President, Grey worked for better justice through better juries by launching the American Jury Initiative. From 2009-2011 he served as Chair of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative.
In 2010 Grey was appointed by President Obama, and confirmed by the Senate, to serve on the Board of the Legal Services Corporation.
Throughout a career that has spanned four decades, Robert Grey has devoted himself to the ideals of public service–improving the lives of others, most of whom he will never meet.
