We are pleased to welcome two of our pro bono partners, Anthony D. Romero from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Nick Turner from the Vera Institute of Justice, as the next guests in our JenTalk speaker series.
Launched in 2015, JenTalk is an in-house program that brings in clients, C-suite and GC-level executives, and other special guests to speak in a moderated format at all-lawyer, all-office gatherings. We are pleased to also invite alumni, clients, and friends of the firm to attend this program, which will be moderated by Partner Jeremy Creelan. Anthony and Nick will discuss current priorities in civil rights and racial justice, their roles in their respective organizations, and the work that shaped their careers. They will also offer advice for younger lawyers looking to develop a career in civil rights and share ways that we can support the ACLU and Vera in their missions.
Our Speakers
- Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the ACLU, the nation’s premier defender of civil liberties. An attorney with a history of public interest activism, Anthony has presided over the most successful growth in the ACLU’s history, dramatically increasing its membership, national and affiliate staff, and increasing the headquarters’ budget ten-fold. He also led a dramatic expansion of the ACLU’s presence in the American South and in battleground states. This unprecedented growth enabled the ACLU to expand its nationwide litigation, lobbying, political advocacy, and public education efforts. Anthony also oversaw the ACLU’s expansion into high-impact political work and state court advocacy. He is the ACLU’s sixth executive director and the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. Born in New York City to parents who hailed from Puerto Rico, Anthony was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He is a graduate of Stanford University Law School and the Princeton University School of Public Policy and International Affairs.
- Nick Turner joined the Vera Institute of Justice as its fifth president and director in August 2013. He is the first person of color to occupy the role. He is also the president and director of Vera Action. Under his leadership, Vera has committed itself to ending overcriminalization and mass incarceration in the United States. Vera works to shrink jails and prisons, elevate a commitment to human dignity, and redefine how public safety is delivered, with a greater investment in public health and community. Nick previously served at Vera from 1998 to 2007, during which time he guided the expansion of Vera’s national work, launching and directing Vera’s state sentencing and corrections program while supervising Vera’s domestic violence projects and the creation of its youth justice program. Prior to re-joining Vera, Nick was a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, an associate in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and a judicial clerk for the late Honorable Jack B. Weinstein. Earlier in his career, before attending Yale Law School, Nick worked with court-involved, homeless, and disconnected young people at Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a Washington, DC youth services organization.