Event details

Join us for a panel discussion on law, leadership, and policy, with Pierre Gentin, Udi Ofer, and Ramona Romero.

Pierre Gentin is the General Counsel of McKinsey & Company. He leads the legal and public affairs functions and advises the firm’s management team and board. Pierre is the first non-consultant elected a senior partner in McKinsey’s history. In 2022, the Financial Times named him one of the top 20 general counsels worldwide. He was a partner in the law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel and spent nearly two decades in financial services at Credit Suisse, where his roles included managing director and global head of litigation, investigations and employment law, general counsel for the global research division, and head of reputational risk for the Americas. Pierre also served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Pierre is a trustee of the Practising Law Institute and is co-editor (with the Hon. Layn R. Phillips, et al.) of a book on the mediation of complex disputes in the financial services industry. He has been recognized as a leading lawyer by the American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, the Brunswick Review, Law360, LawDragon, the Legal 500, and others. He regularly advises the general counsel and other executives on the design and management of corporate functions. In 2008, Pierre was named a “young global leader” of the World Economic Forum (WEF), and he has served on the WEF’s global agenda councils on faith, values in decision-making, and the role of business. Pierre taught law as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, and business ethics as a lecturer at the Wharton School of Business. He co-edited a book on alternative dispute resolution in the financial services sector. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he taught a virtual course exploring the relationship between American poetry, religious thought, and blues music. In the Spring 2023, he will serve as “leader in residence” in the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia Law School. Pierre graduated from Princeton University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and received a law degree from Columbia University.

Udi Ofer is the James L. Weinberg Visiting Professor and Lecturer in the School of Public and International Affairs. He has been at SPIA since 2018, teaching courses on civil rights, policing, criminal justice reform, policymaking, and movement building. He is the founding Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic

at SPIA. He is also Chair of the International Advisory Council of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Udi has more than 20 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer and policy advocate. From 2016-2022, Ofer was the Deputy National Political Director of the ACLU and the founding Director of the ACLU’s Justice Division, which leads the ACLU’s advocacy on criminal justice reform, including before the White House and Congress. From 2013-2016, Ofer served as Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey. Earlier, he worked at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where he began as the founding Director of the New York Bill of Rights Defense Campaign, working on civil liberties and national security issues, focusing on the USA PATRIOT Act, Guantanamo Bay, torture policies, and the detention of Arab, Muslim and South Asian residents by the NYPD and federal authorities. In 2008, he founded the Advocacy Department, where he challenged the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices and spearheaded the successful effort to pass legislation banning racial profiling by the NYPD and creating an NYPD Inspector General’s office. Ofer was also a co-founder of Communities United for Police Reform in New York City. Udi began his legal career in 2001 as a Skadden Fellow at My Sisters’ Place, a domestic violence organization. He was an adjunct professor at New York Law School from 2009-2012, and has published widely including in the Seton Hall Law Review, Columbia Law School Journal of Race and Law, and New York Law School Law Review. Ofer’s work and commentary have been featured in hundreds of national and local news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker Radio Hour, NBC News, The Hill, and POLITICO. He has testified before many legislatures, including the United States Senate, and is frequently cited as an expert on civil rights and criminal justice matters. Udi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Distinguished Graduate Award from Fordham Law School, a presidential award from the Open Society Foundations, and a proclamation from the New York City Council for contributions made by his work to the city and state. He is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Ramona Emilia Romero is Vice President and General Counsel of Princeton University. As the University’s chief legal officer, she is a member of its senior management team; advises the trustees, the President, and other senior administrative and academic officers on the legal implications of University policy and decision-making; and leads the team of lawyers and administrative professionals in the Office of the General Counsel. She joined the University after nearly four years as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a Senate-confirmed position to which she was appointed by President Obama. At USDA, Ramona advised Secretary Vilsack and other senior department leaders, and led a team of over 300 legal and ethics professionals. Previously, she held a variety of legal roles at a major multi-national corporation and was a white collar, government contracts and commercial litigator at a Washington, DC-based law firm. Throughout her career, Ramona has volunteered her time to many professional and community organizations, with a particular focus on promoting diversity and equal opportunity, access to justice, and judicial independence. Currently, she is a member of President Biden’s Commission on White House Fellowships, a trustee of Barnard College and of Legal Services of New Jersey, and a member of the American Law Institute. Her prior volunteer efforts include service on the governing boards of Greater Trenton, Inc., the McCarter Theatre Center, the Justice at Stake Campaign, the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula, and the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and the Advisory Committee of the O’Connor Judicial Selection Initiative at the University of Denver. She is a former chair of the Supreme Court Committee of the National Association of Women Lawyers, and a former National President of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). As President of the HNBA (2008-2009), Ramona founded the Latina Commission and the highly successful Hispanic Appointments Project, which advocated for and supported President Obama’s appointment of Hispanic lawyers to the Federal judiciary and Executive Branch. Ramona’s leadership and contributions have resulted in numerous awards and recognitions, including the Lucero (“guiding star”) award from Latino Justice/PRLEDF, and twice being identified by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, she earned her B.A. from Barnard College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.