Pierce J. Reed, senior judicial attorney to Supreme Court of Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, speaks on campus on Monday, April 11, from 5-6 p.m. in Bentley 110, on “Behind the Bench: Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer.”
The lecture is hosted by the Center for Law, Justice & Culture.
Reed is a summa cum laude graduate of Ohio University, with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, who worked for several years as a counselor and advocate for victims of child abuse, domestic violence and hate crimes in the Boston area before going to law school at Northeastern University School of Law.
During law school, Reed’s focus was on the interrelatedness of law, public health and infectious diseases. He was the first Northeastern student selected as a graduate fellow by the prestigious Echoing Green Foundation in New York City. During his fellowship, he did policy and litigation work related to privacy, the implementation and use of the Americans with Disabilities Act, “throwaway” and runaway adolescents, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
After his fellowship, Reed practiced for several years as a litigator with two Boston firms. His practice focused on appellate, products liability, employment and insurance law, and included representation in federal and state courts across the country.
For the last 15 years, his career has focused on judicial service.
While in Boston, he was a career law clerk to former United States Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander Ford, one of the first African American women to serve in the federal judiciary.
After moving to Columbus in 2005, he was hired by O’Connor and became her senior judicial attorney. In his current position, he assists the chief justice in the analysis and disposition of merit cases, as well as the creation and implementation of law student and civic education initiatives, and hiring staff whose positions directly support the chief and her colleagues at the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Reed is also an adjunct professor at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, where he teaches appellate advocacy, and at the Center for Professional Education at Boston University, where he teaches litigation.
He serves as the treasurer of the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Columbus Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, and he served many years as the president of the chapter.
He also serves in several mentoring programs and frequently judges moot court competitions.
His lecture will focus on his unconventional path to law school, his legal career, and his career in judicial service.
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