Published: March 16, 2009 02:42 pm      

Hartwick names graduation speaker

ONEONTA _ Hartwick College has announced that Cyrus Mehri of the class of 1983 will be this year’s commencement speaker

Mehri, a founding partner of the law firm Mehri & Skalet, will address the class of 2009 during the ceremony beginning at 11:30 a.m, May 23, on Elmore Field.

Mehri testified in September before the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Supreme Court plaintiff Lilly Ledbetter about pay equity and the need to diversify the pools of candidates considered for the federal bench.In October, Mehri released a paper, 21st Century Tools for Advancing Equal Opportunity: Recommendations for the Next Administration, with the American Constitution Society.The Lilly Ledbetter bill became the first legislation signed into law by President Obama.

After receiving his degree from Hartwick, Mehri graduated from Cornell Law School in 1988 and clerked for U.S. District Judge John T. Nixon for the Middle District of Tennessee. Today, he serves as co-lead counsel in numerous consumer and civil rights class-action lawsuits.

Mehri has served as class counsel in some of the largest race and discrimination class-action lawsuits in U.S. history, including those against Texaco Inc., The Coca-Cola Company and Morgan Stanley. These led to multimillion-dollar settlements that included sweeping reforms of pay and promotions policies.

Recognized among fellow professionals and the public alike, Mehri has been praised by The New York Times, who said his “vision for corporate America involves sweeping change, not the piece-meal kind.” Fast Company called him “a one-man army in the battle against business as usual. His impact—both in terms of penalties and remedies — is undeniable."

Mehri’s numerous awards include the Distinguished Visitor award from the Miami-Dade County Office of the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners and the prestigious Award of Excellence from the Pigskin Club of Washington, DC. He also is the recipient of Hartwick’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award and founded the Cyrus Mehri Global Pluralism Award, which funds the work of Hartwick students and faculty in on-campus projects and activities that share diverse perspectives.

In 2003, the Detroit City Council honored Mehri with a resolution commending his success in “changing the fabric of America.” In 1997 and again in 2001, he was named a finalist by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for the organization’s Trial Lawyer of the Year award for his work on the Texaco and Coca-Cola lawsuits.

In 2004, he joined the National Council of Women’s Organizations to announce Women on Wall Street, a project focusing on gender discrimination in financial institutions. In 2002, he co-released the report Black Coaches in the National Football League: Superior Performance, Inferior Opportunities, which became the catalyst for the NFL’s creation of a Workplace Diversity Committee and the adoption of a comprehensive diversity program.

In January of this year, he announced the Madison Avenue Project with the NAACP to focus on equal opportunity in that influential industry.

Adding to his list of accomplishments, Mehri also authored of a series of articles on securities enforcement and corporate governance, is a frequent guest on radio and TV, and is a guest columnist for Diversity Inc.