Board Approves Honorary Law Degree for Michael Greco

Akron, Ohio, April 25, 2007 — The University of Akron's Board of Trustees today approved conferring the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws on Michael S. Greco, a partner with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP in Boston, and the immediate past president of the American Bar Association.

The 2007 UA School of Law commencement speaker, Greco will receive the degree at the event on May 20 at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall.

A trial lawyer with 35 years of litigation experience, Greco is also an arbitrator and mediator at the state, national and international levels.

“It is our pleasure to host Immediate Past ABA President Michael Greco at the 2007 School of Law Commencement ceremony, both as speaker and recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Laws,” says Dean Richard L. Aynes. “Mr. Greco's impressive lead on promoting pro-bono work within the legal field is a natural fit with our School of Law's commitment to teaching the importance of public service law to its future graduates.”

As ABA president, Greco traveled on more than 300 of his 365 days in office to every part of the United States, including 45 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and 30 nations, delivered more than 275 speeches, testified before congressional committees and met with hundreds of government leaders abroad and in the United States, lawyers and judges, and bar associations and civic groups.

The over-arching theme of Greco's term of office was renaissance — a rebirth and reaffirmation of the legal profession's core values and America's constitutional principles. His priorities as president included protecting the rights and freedoms of American citizens, safeguarding the independence of the judiciary and other institutions of America's democracy, addressing the legal needs of lower-income citizens, advancement of women, people of color and persons with disabilities in the legal profession, and improvements to the ABA and the legal profession. During his term he created two ABA commissions, five task forces and several special committees to implement his presidential initiatives and address issues of concern to the public and the legal profession.

Greco has long been active in the American Bar Association, including serving in its House of Delegates for the past 20 years, and as the elected state delegate from Massachusetts from 1993-2004. He chaired the association's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, Executive Committee of the Conference of State Delegates, Steering Committee of the Nominating Committee, the ABA Day in Washington Planning Committee, and numerous other committees.

After Sept. 11, 2001, he served on the ABA Task Force on Terrorism and the Law, and also served on the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security and the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.

Greco has served as president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, president of the New England Bar Association, president of the New England Bar Foundation and president of the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.

A resident of Wellesley, Mass., Greco received a bachelor of arts degree in English from Princeton University in 1965, and his Juris Doctor from Boston College in 1972.

The University of Akron School of Law commemorates 85 years of promoting justice, the protection of individual liberty and the rule of law through commitment to excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. To learn more, visit www.uakron.edu/law.

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