Gloria Allred, an award-winning women’s rights attorney, has been named the commencement speaker for University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Class of 2023 graduation.
The Penn Carey Law graduation ceremony will take place Monday, May 15 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.
Allred is a 1963 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts for Women, which merged with Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1974. Her grandson, Sam Wong, is a member of this year’s Penn Carey Law graduating class.
Allred’s law firm, Allred, Maroko & Goldberg has been a leading women’s rights private law firm for 47 years. The firm, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, is known for working with victims of rape and child sexual abuse.
Allred has been nationally recognized for her legal work with people who are discriminated against based on their gender, race, age, sexuality, and disabilities. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan presented Allred with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for her work on child support. More recently, President Barack Obama called her “one of the best attorneys in the country.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Gloria Allred to the [Penn Carey Law] as this year’s commencement speaker,” Ted Ruger, Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, wrote in the press release.
Allred is the author of "Fight Back and Win: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Injustice--And How You Can Win Your Own Battles," a book about the lessons she has learned fighting for victims’ rights, and a three-time Emmy nominee for her commentaries on KABC-TV in Los Angeles. In February 2018, “Seeing Allred,” a documentary about Allred’s life, launched globally on Netflix and is still streaming.
Allred studied English at Penn. She received her law degree from Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University and holds a master’s degree from New York University.
In 2019, Allred was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, and California Rural Legal Assistance recognized her for fighting for injustices in her community. In 2020, Allred received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The American Lawyer magazine and the Praeses Elit Award from the Trinity College Dublin Law Society.
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