Rick Palmore, ’77, Honored with University’s Diversity Leadership Awards

Faculty, alumni, staff and student recipients to be recognized at MLK commemoration

The University of Chicago is honoring six members of the UChicago community as recipients of this year’s Diversity Leadership Awards, which recognize University faculty, students, staff and alumni who have shown a commitment to fostering justice and equality.

The 2023 winners are Prof. Monica E. Peek, alumni Bea Young, AB’60, MAT’64, and Rick Palmore, JD’77, staff member Tracye A. Matthews, graduate student Lizeth Tamayo and College student Tyler Okeke. They will be recognized during UChicago’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Celebration on Jan. 23 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. (Learn more about that event here.)

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Rick Palmore is a nationally recognized advocate for diversity in the legal industry. With nearly 20 years of experience serving as general counsel and as a public company director, he advises public and private corporations on risk management and governance issues across practices and industry sectors.

Palmore currently serves as senior counsel in the Chicago office of Dentons US LLP, the successor firm to Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He is also the principal of Palmore Consulting, an executive coaching firm. Previous roles include leadership positions at General Mills, Inc. and Sara Lee Corporation. Palmore also worked as a trial lawyer and served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Illinois.

Palmore is the author of A Call to Action: Diversity in the Legal Profession, which urges general counsel to drive diversity through their own actions and departments and by holding law firms accountable. This initiative grew into the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a collaboration between general counsel and managing partners that currently includes more than 400 chief legal officers and law firm managing partners. More than 10,000 lawyers have participated in LCLD’s talent development programs. As founding chair emeritus, Palmore serves on the LCLD board of directors and the executive committee. He has been recognized as one of the most influential general counsels in America by the National Law Journal, Inside Counsel magazine, and Corporate Board Member magazine.

Palmore received a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Yale University and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.

Read more at The University of Chicago News Office