Former US Attorney Breon Peace ’96 and Rosalie Silberman Abella, retired justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will deliver remarks at Convocation 2025, Dean Troy McKenzie ’00 has announced. During the event, to be held on May 20 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Peace will be the keynote speaker during the JD graduation ceremony in the morning, and Justice Abella will address LLM, JSD, and other graduate degree recipients during the afternoon gathering.
Peace served as US attorney for the Eastern District of New York from October 2021 to January 2025. Previously, Peace was a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, practicing in the firm’s White-Collar Defense & Investigations and Litigation Groups, serving on its Global Executive Committee, and maintaining an active pro bono caseload.
Peace first joined Cleary in 1996, then clerked for Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr., of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 1997 to 1998. He served as an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 2000 to 2003, and taught at the Law School as an acting assistant professor of clinical law during the 2002–03 academic year. Peace rejoined Cleary in 2003 and in 2007 became the first African-American man to be elected partner at the firm.
Peace remains active in the Law School community. He served as an NYU Law trustee and has made regular speaking appearances at conferences and other events on campus. In 2021 the Law Alumni of Color Association honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award.
Born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, Justice Abella practiced civil and criminal litigation as a sole practitioner until being appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976 at the age of 29, when she was seven months pregnant. She was the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada. She chaired and authored the Ontario Study on Access to Legal Services by the Disabled in 1983 and was sole commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment. In that report, she pioneered the term and concept of “employment equity” and developed theories of equality and discrimination later adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision on equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and by the governments of New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and South Africa.
Appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1992, she served in that role until being named to the Supreme Court in 2004. Abella served on the Supreme Court of Canada for 17 years, the first Jewish woman appointed to the Court.
Abella has chaired the Ontario Labour Relations Board and the Ontario Law Reform Commission. She also sat on the Ontario Human Rights Commission; the Ontario Public Service Labour Relations Tribunal; and the Premier’s Advisory Committee on Confederation.
She has taught at numerous law schools and currently is the Samuel LL.M. ’55 S.J.D. ’59 and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She has written more than 90 articles and authored or co-authored four books. She has been recognized with numerous awards, including 42 honorary degrees, the President’s Award of the Canadian Bar Association, the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the President of Germany, Canada’s Walk of Fame Humanitarian Award, and many others.
Posted February 28, 2025