Diversity Committee-Sponsored Events

As part of the Firm’s commitment to educate our lawyers and staff on the importance of respecting inclusion and diversity, in 2017, the firm hosted the following programs noted below:

Kramer Levin hosted Dr. Lauren Rivera from the Kellogg School of Management. Dr. Rivera used interactive exercises along with cutting-edge social science research to provide strategies to neutralize biases and successfully increase the diversity of the workforce. 

Dr. Lauren Rivera is an Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She is an expert on workplace evaluations and has written extensively on hiring and promotion practices in elite professional service firms. Her award-winning book Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (Princeton University Press, 2015) investigates class, gender, and racial biases in hiring decisions for top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms. Her research has been featured in the Atlantic, Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and NPR. In recognition of her work, Professor Rivera received the American Sociological Association's William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. She has been named one of the top 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets & Quants and a rising management star by Thinkers50. She received her B.A. in sociology and psychology from Yale University and her Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

 Dr. Lauren Rivera

The firm hosted a discussion on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA), a program which grants temporary legal protection from deportation to individuals brought to the United States as children. Liz Markuci, immigration lawyer and director of Volunteers of Legal Service’s (VOLS) Immigration Project, provided an overview of the DACA program, shared success stories of her work with immigrant clients who sought and obtained this temporary form of relief, and explored some of the challenges immigrant advocates face.

Liz Markuci is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, and received her Juris Doctor from the City University of New York School of Law. Liz currently serves on the Pro Bono and Legal Services Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City Of New York’s (ABCNY) Pro Bono Committee, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Public Interest Pro Bono Association (PIPBA). Previously, Liz served as a member of ABCNY’s Committee on Professional Ethics and Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of AILA’s Pro Bono Committee, training and mentoring pro bono representing unaccompanied minors facing removal proceedings in immigration court through the Juvenile Docket. During her three-year tenure, the AILA New York Chapter was awarded the New York State Conference of Bar Leaders 2011 Bar Leaders Innovation Award for this project. In 2014, Liz was a recipient of the City Bar Association's Legal Services Award for her leadership of the VOLS Immigration Project. This vanguard program was designed to bring legal services directly to schools in underserved communities and support immigrant high-school students on the path to college and employment. Liz has recruited, trained and mentored hundreds of volunteer attorneys to represent immigrants through various pro bono initiatives throughout New York City.

          Liz Markuci