News Archive
Chair of the Democratic National Committee Presents Bayh Lecture at IU McKinney October 24
10/25/2017
Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, presented the sixth annual Birch Bayh Lecture at the Indiana Robert H. McKinney School of Law on October 24. Perez delivered his talk, “The Lawyer’s Duty: Social Justice, Racial Justice, Economic Justice,” in the Wynne Courtroom at Inlow Hall.
Perez is a consumer advocate, and civil rights lawyer, in addition to serving as chair of the Democratic National Committee. He served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 2013 to 2017, and prior to that, served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.
Born in Buffalo, New York, and 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.
Following this stint in government service, Perez was a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he taught in the clinical law and health programs. After his work in the legal academy, he was appointed to run the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.
Perez returned to federal government service when President Barack Obama nominated him to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. He subsequently served as Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration.
The Birch Bayh Lecture was established at IU McKinney in honor of former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh. The series, made possible through the generous contributions of the Simon Property Group, where Senator Bayh served on the board for 17 years, and the friends of Birch Bayh, focuses on issues of importance to Senator Bayh throughout his long and distinguished career in government.
Throughout the lecture, Perez made reference to the work Senator Bayh did during his career in government service, making specific reference to legislation such as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Title IX, among other accomplishments.
In the photo from left are Robert H. McKinney, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, Dean Andrew R. Klein, Professor Florence Wagman Roisman, Tom Perez, Jim Barkley, ’77, and Chris Bayh.
