Democratic National Committee chair to speak at IU McKinney

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez will present “The Lawyer’s Duty: Social Justice, Racial Justice, Economic Justice,” in the sixth annual Birch Bayh Lecture at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. The speech will be Tuesday, October 24 in the Wynne Courtroom at Inlow Hall.

Perez is a consumer advocate and civil rights lawyer who served as U.S. Labor Secretary from 2013 to 2017. Before that, he served as the assistant attorney general at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

The son of first-generation Dominican immigrants, Perez graduated from Brown University, and received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He also earned a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. After law school, Perez clerked for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado before serving as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice, and as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights under then-Attorney General Janet Reno. Then he worked as Special Counselor for Senator Ted Kennedy, serving as the senator’s principal advisor on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. He later became the director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The lecture honors former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh and focuses on issues of importance to the former Indiana senator. The lecture is free and open to the public. It begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception. One  hour of Indiana Continuing Legal Education credit is available.

Seating in the Wynne Courtroom is limited and registration is required.  Overflow viewing of the lecture will be available via video link in Room 375 of Inlow Hall.