Leslie Richards-Yellen

Leslie Richards-Yellen is director of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP inNew York and has practiced law for more than 30 years as both a partner and an in-house lawyer. She co-chairs the Cornell Law School Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Alumni Leadership Counsel, serves on the board of the Cornell Black Lawyers Alumni Network, serves on the advisory board for the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, is a member of the Scenic Hudson Board, and is an IndependentBoard Member for City Different Investments. Ms. Richards-Yellen formerly served as president of theNational Association of Women Lawyers, on the board of the Delta Dental of Illinois Foundation, as a commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (for which she chaired itsDiversity Committee), as chair of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Firms, as a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers’s (currently the Financial Industry Regulation Authority)Fixed Income Committee, and as a member of the Investment Company Institute’s Fixed Income Committee. She was awarded the Chicago Bar Association’s “Vanguard Award,” which honors individuals who have made the legal profession more accessible and reflective of the community at large, and theMs. JD “Sharing Her Passion Award,” for inspiring younger women lawyers. She also received the“Woman of Excellence Award” from the Chicago Defender newspaper. Ms. Richards-Yellen received her B.F.A. from Drake University and her J.D. from Cornell University School of Law.