A Conversation With Conrad Harper
2L Diversity Fellowship

June 2021

In 2021, Simpson Thacher launched the Conrad Harper 2L Diversity Fellowship, named in honor of
the Firm’s first African American partner. The fellowship is designed to increase and support Simpson
Thacher’s pipeline of associates from diverse backgrounds through our Summer Associate Program.
Conrad Harper recently spoke to Simpson Thacher’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Carlos
Dávila-Caballero, to share more about his professional and personal journey and his contributions tothe legal profession. Mr. Harper’s illustrious career spanned thirty-five years across multiple sectors ofthe profession, both nationally and internationally.

CDC: Conrad it is truly a privilege to speak

My educational and overall experience at Howard wasto you. I understand that your father was anextraordinary. It was a comfortable and stimulating

attorney and your mother an English teacher incontext in which to learn from others and to value

your hometown of Detroit, Michigan. When did

opposing viewpoints.

you decide to pursue law studies?
CH:I knew I wanted to be a lawyer when I was about

CDC: After Harvard Law did you go straight

10 years old. My family was having a Thanksgiving

to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education

dinner and a family member asked me what I wanted

Fund (LDF)? What motivated you to practice atto be when I grew up. I said a doctor or a lawyer. Shethe LDF?

said a doctor would have to deal with blood. So, I said
I wanted to be a lawyer. My father, himself a lawyer,
never encouraged or discouraged my interest in law.
However, I can recall being fascinated by the facts incases reported in advance sheets—pamphlets containing
recently decided state court cases—which my father
routinely brought home.

CH:

During my first year at Harvard Law, DeanErwin Griswold summoned me to his office. You canimagine my anxiety. He told me I had been awarded
an academic scholarship and he asked about my plans
for the coming summer. He strongly encouraged meto consider working for the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, where he was then a Commissioner. Taking hisadvice, I worked at the Commission the summer of 1963.

CDC: Before Harvard Law, you completed yourundergraduate degree at Howard University.
Why did you choose Howard University and how
did your experience attending an HBCU shape
your professional aspirations and/or views
about race relations in the U.S.?
CH:The next year, I took Dean Griswold’s tax class and I
believe he put me in touch with Jack Greenberg, LDF’s
second Director-Counsel after Thurgood Marshall. I
worked there the summer of 1964, a spectacular andchallenging experience. During my third year, I received
an offer to join the LDF staff.

The short answer is I did not choose Howard. Myparents did. They grew up in Atlanta and went to HBCUs
there. By the late 1950s, when I was a high school senior,
they believed I needed to be in an environment, socialand academic, among—as they put it—colored people.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

The first years of practice are crucial forestablishing the kind of lawyer you will be.

CDC: We are so privileged that you decided toas fast as I could toward resolution. Representing

join Simpson after your career at the LDF.

commercial defendants, I saw, often meant narrowing

What motivated the change and why did youthrough extensive motion practice the claims at issue

pick Simpson?

while recognizing that speed was not necessarily an

CH:

The idea of moving to private practice camefrom my wife, Marsha. About three years after I
started at LDF, she said my learning curve wasflattening. I later took her point seriously as I had

objective. Further, the large variety and complexity of
the Firm’s clients meant perpetually learning new facts,
legal doctrines and economic and business realities.
Over time, I represented both defendants and plaintiffs.

begun to realize I had legal interests well beyond

Being part of a team that often lasted for years meant

matters of racial discrimination.

that each case was a continuing seminar. We were, inI was active in the New York City Bar Association.
I talked with prominent practitioners who werea sense, a living community and this added a layer ofenjoyment to the demanding practice.

also members of the Association. Some of thoseconversations led to interviews with several firms. While

CDC: You championed diversity in theI was on the verge of accepting an offer from anotherprofession decades before the profession fully

firm, two friends asked me to consider Simpson Thacher.

understood the value of inclusion or even

One of them knew Cyrus (Cy) Vance, who within a few

understood these terms. Can you share withyears would be City Bar President and then Secretary

Fellowship applicants what those terms meanof State. Cy was then head of the Firm and one of theto you?

most respected lawyers in the city. The thought of going
through more interviews was itself almost exhaustingbut I accepted the Firm’s invitation and was interviewed
by, among others, Cy and every other partner in theLitigation Department.

CH:

From the perspective of a person having

authority to foster inclusiveness, I view inclusion
as a means of aiding less experienced lawyers inlearning what they need to know and how to hone theirskills without their differences—of race, ethnicity,

The Firm’s high reputation and its large volume ofgender, sexual orientation, disability—impeding theirlitigation were important to me. I wanted to be in acareer objectives.

culture in which I would feel comfortable and in a place
where the partners were active in civic affairs, and had atradition of public service. Cy Vance and Whitney NorthSeymour, Sr. (a former ABA and City Bar President)
exemplified those values.

By the end of the 1980s, the black partners in major
New York City law firms, about a half dozen or so, werealarmed at our small numbers. We met with the thenPresident of the New York City Bar, Jim Oliensis, toemphasize our concerns. He promised to act. In thefollowing months, he named a precedent-shattering

I wanted to be in a culture in which I would
feel comfortable and in a place where thepartners were active in civic affairs, andhad a tradition of public service.

committee composed of the leaders of the major firms.
Oliensis wanted the most respected member of the Bar,Cy Vance, to chair the committee and Cy agreed to do so
provided I was the President. The subsequent Statementof Diversity Principles (the current title of the document
first issued in 1991) was unanimously adopted by theCDC: What did you enjoy about private practicecommittee owing in major part to the persuasiveness,

as a litigator at Simpson?

reputation, and integrity of Cy Vance.

CH:I joined the Firm in January 1971. In my very firstassignments, I realized that in representing defendants,

CDC: Thirty years after its launch by the City

I had to change my characteristic LDF mindset.

Bar, the Statement of Diversity Principles,Formerly, my thrust was to widen as much as possible

has more than 160 signatories (law firms andthe claims being made while at the same time pushingcorporations). What do you think about the2progress of diversity, equity and inclusion thustook place in Greenville’s federal district court. And,

far in the profession?

though the court rejected the irregularities claims ofCH:A lot has been achieved as evidenced by

the current large number of signatory firms andcorporations, and the elevation to partnerships
and general counsel positions of underrepresented
minorities. But much more remains to be done. It
is easier to hire people than to help them develop to
their full potential. It is easier to recruit than to retainand easier to retain than to advance. The current low
percentages of Black partners and associates in theblack illiterate voters, an important precedent wasachieved. Because on October 4, 1974—almost threeyears after the general election took place—the court
decided that illiterate voters, many of whom wereblack, were to have the same right as blind and disabled
voters, many of whom were white—namely, assistancein marking ballots by persons of their choice. As I once
wrote, pro bono service gives us a chance, all our days,
to do some good in the world.

profession, 2% and 5% respectively, is lamentable.1 We
higher. I think similar disproportions exist for other

Making time for pro bono work willkeep you grounded in the law’s promisegroups considered in terms of race, ethnicity, gender,to secure equal justice.

know the percentage of Black law students is muchand sexual orientation. This is and ought to be a major
worry for the Bar.
We need to keep asking hard questions and obtaining
better answers in order to push forward. We—firms,judges, law schools, the entire profession—need to befocused on constant improvement. Leaders in every
sphere must be responsible and accountable.

CDC: The new generation of lawyers of color
has lived through some challenging times. Theyexperienced the Great Recession, and mostrecently a global pandemic and the resurgenceof the racial justice movement. What gives you
hope about this next group of talented lawyers
about to enter the profession? Do you have any

CDC: Is there a single moment or achievementthat you associate more closely to your legacy orwhat you wish others to view as your legacy?
CH:I would want to be remembered by my voting

advice for them?
CH:

Advice is easy to give and hard to accept. The

new generation of lawyers has a lot of energy and isalready quite accomplished. That gives me hope andrights work in Mississippi. In November of 1971, claims

persuades me that they are preparing for the importantof voting irregularities, many centered on infringement

work ahead.

of black illiterate voters, plagued a general electionin Humphreys County, Mississippi. The Lawyers’Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law (Lawyers’Committee), after careful review of statewide reports
from poll watchers, determined that Humphreys County
should be sued. The Lawyers’ Committee solicited pro
bono assistance, and Simpson Thacher, a founding
member of the Lawyers’ Committee, answered the call.
I was one of the three associates who accepted theassignment and traveled to Midnight, Mississippi inearly 1972. During the course of my next two years at
Simpson, I travelled throughout Humphreys County
interviewing local residents, reviewing poll watcher

The first years of practice are crucial for establishing
the kind of lawyer you will be. Making time for pro bonowork will keep you grounded in the law’s promise tosecure equal justice. You will always remember thosewhom you helped who could not pay. Character is at theroot of all achievement. Complementing life experiencesby reading about real and fictional challenges will
expand awareness and judgment.
Self-care is essential. Please make sure to take vacations.
Physical activity keeps the mind sharp. You should be
deeply involved in at least one important aspect of life
outside the law. The best lawyers lead full lives.

reports, and taking depositions of local officials, federal
observers, and poll watchers. A two-week bench trial
1. 2020 NALP Report on Diversity on US Law Firms.

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