Save the Date - More Information to Come
Presented by The Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee
About the Program
For a decade, the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Summit has been a cornerstone of our collective journey toward a more inclusive and equitable legal profession. What began in 2016 as a bold initiative has grown into a powerful tradition that brings together leaders, changemakers, and advocates from across Connecticut to learn, reflect, and act. The Summit also serves as the annual convening of the signatories to the Connecticut Legal Community Diversity and Inclusion Pledge and Plan — a coalition of over 40 organizations committed to long-term, meaningful change. Please join us on Friday, October 24, 2025, for the 10th Annual Connecticut Bar Association Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit: The Collaborative Blueprint.
Speakers
Emily A. Gianquinto
CBA President, McCarter & English
Attorney Gianquinto is special counsel at McCarter & English LLP, where she counsels employers on day-to-day employment matters and represents them before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and mediation and arbitration panels. Her experience includes litigating all manner of business disputes.
Dr. Robert W. Livingston
Harvard University
Dr. Robert Livingston is a social psychologist and one of the world’s leading experts on the science of diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations. Prior to joining Harvard in 2015, he held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Kellogg School of Management, and the University of Sussex in England, where he was also department chair and faculty director of the Centre for Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity (LEAD). His 20+ years of scientific research have been published in top-tier academic journals and have also been featured in popular press outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, BBC, Newsweek, USA Today, Time, MSNBC, and Harvard Business Review. His Harvard Business Review article “How to Promote Racial Equity in the Workplace” was the winner of the 2020 Warren Bennis Prize, awarded to the best article on leadership published in HBR each year. This article was also showcased in HBR at 100—a book containing the most influential articles published in Harvard Business Review over the last 100 years. His highly acclaimed and bestselling book The Conversation was selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2021 and was also nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work” in nonfiction. In recognition of his academic achievement and social impact, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge College in June 2022. That same year he was also elected as a Fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, an honor bestowed upon “individuals who have made extraordinary and unique contributions to the field of personality and social psychology.” In his spare time, he enjoys jazz, wine and whiskey tasting, gastronomy, philosophy, cinema, interior design, and nature documentaries. He has resided in six countries and speaks four languages.
Michelle Silverthorn
ThriveHero
Michelle Silverthorn is a globally recognized keynote speaker and workplace culture strategist. As the creator of the ThriveHero™ framework, Michelle empowers professionals and leaders to overcome disillusionment, rewrite their work narratives, and build purpose-driven careers. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School, Michelle combines data, storytelling, and practical strategies to ignite engagement and unlock personal and professional transformation. Whether speaking to ten-person teams or 2500-person conferences, Michelle delivers bold, energizing keynotes that invite every audience member to step into their hero’s journey and walk a new path to thrive at work and beyond. A 2x TEDx speaker, Michelle was named by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 250 Female Founders in the world.
Hon. Cecil J. Thomas
Connecticut Superior Court
The Honorable Cecil J. Thomas will receive the Charles J. Parker Legal Services Award at the Connecticut Bar Association’s annual awards celebration, Celebrate with the Stars on Wednesday, May 3. He is a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut and is currently assigned to the New London Judicial District at Norwich, where he hears family matters. Prior to his elevation to the bench, Judge Thomas spent his entire career as an attorney at Greater Hartford Legal Aid. During this time, he represented his clients in thousands of individual matters, state and federal class action and appellate litigation, and critical legislative and policy advocacy, resulting in significant victories on behalf of low-income Connecticut residents. Included in these victories is a multi-million-dollar class action trial judgment and financial settlement benefiting tenants who had been displaced from condemned homes, and a successful decision at the Connecticut Supreme Court overturning the improper termination of a disabled individual’s state housing subsidy. Additionally, he was instrumental in the creation of meaningful protections for tenants at risk of eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic and in advocacy, leading to the creation of the new eviction Right to Counsel Program in 2021. Judge Thomas was a founding member and the first president of the Greater Hartford Legal Attorneys Union and served as lead negotiator for contract negotiations that spanned three years and over 50 negotiation sessions, ultimately leading to the union’s first collective bargaining agreement in 2018. Judge Thomas is a past president of the South Asian Bar Association, University of Connecticut Law School Alumni Association, and the Connecticut Bar Association (CBA). He was the first attorney of South Asian descent and the youngest to serve as president of the CBA since the association was founded in 1875, and his service as an officer and president of the CBA was marked by a significant commitment to the promotion of access to justice. Judge Thomas continues to serve as a co-chair of the CBA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Mallori D. Thompson
CBA DEI Committee Co-Chair, Robinson & Cole LLP
Mallori Deanna Thompson is an associate attorney in the business litigation practice group at Robinson+Cole. Mallori is also the Chair of the Connecticut Bar Association's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and a faculty member for the Connecticut Judicial Branch’s Civics Academy. Previously, she was a judicial law clerk for Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson (Ret.) of the Connecticut Supreme Court and Judge Victor A. Bolden of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Mallori received her B.A. in Comparative Women's Studies with a concentration in Public Policy from Spelman College and her J.D. and Human Rights Certificate from the University of Connecticut School of Law. While a student at UConn Law, she successfully represented an asylum seeker in a removal proceeding, completed the Community Justice Fellowship at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, and published articles in the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives, and various other journals on a variety of subjects such as maternal mortality, reparations, and economic justice. Mallori also served as the first Black Editor-in-Chief of the Connecticut Law Review. Mallori serves on Robinson+Cole's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion + Belonging Committee and is the Immediate Past President of the George W. Crawford Black Bar Association. Mallori has been awarded the 2024 Graduates of the Last Decade Impact Award from the UConn Law Alumni Association, the 2023 Robinson+Cole Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award, the 2021 American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education Scholarship & Leadership Award and was a Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2019 First 100 Plus Honoree. She also recently completed over ten years of service as a Captain in the United States Army Reserves Medical Service Corps.
Prof. Kenji Yoshino
New York University
Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. A graduate of Harvard (AB summa cum laude), Oxford (MSc as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale (JD), he specializes in constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, and law and literature. He received tenure at Yale Law School, where he served as Deputy Dean before moving to NYU. Yoshino has published in major academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. He has also written for more popular forums, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Yoshino is the author of three books. His fourth book (co-authored with David Glasgow), Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice was published by Simon & Schuster in February 2023. Yoshino has served as the President of the Harvard Board of Overseers. He currently serves on the Board of the Brennan Center for Justice and Meta’s Oversight Board (the body that adjudicates content moderation for Facebook and Instagram). He also serves on advisory boards for diversity and inclusion for Morgan Stanley and Charter Communications, and on the board of his children's school. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarship, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the Peck Medal in Jurisprudence, and the University's Distinguished Teaching Award. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, two children, and a Great Dane.