Grace Speights is a partner in Morgan Lewis’ Labor & Employment Law Practice, Managing Partner of the Washington, DC Office, Chair of the Firm’s Complex Employment Litigation Practice Group, co-chair of the Firm’s Diversity Committee and a member of the Firm’s 18-member Advisory Board. Her practice focuses on counseling and defending clients in connection with employment discrimination claims, primarily involving class action litigation, and on counseling clients regarding diversity best practices. She joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in 1984, after having clerked for the late Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr., United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Ms. Speights has been active in national and local bar association activities. She has been a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates as a representative for the National Bar Association, has served as the President of the Greater Washington Area Chapter Women Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association, as the Vice President of the Washington Bar Association and as Chair of the DC Chapter of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. She also served as a member of the District of Columbia Federal Judicial Nominations Commission (having been appointed to that Commission by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton), the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Committee on Admissions and the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Tenure and Disabilities. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Local Rules for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Ms. Speights also has been active in civic and community activities. Among such activities, Ms. Speights has served as President of the Jack and Jill of America Foundation and as a member of the Governing Board and Chair of the Diversity Committee of the St. Albans School. Ms. Speights has also served as Vice President and Board Member of the Coalition for the Homeless, President of the DC Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., a Board Member of the Metropolitan Day School, a Board Member of the Washington Episcopal School, a member of the University of Pennsylvania Trustees’ Council of Women and a member of the Capital City Chapter of The Links, Inc. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral School for Girls.

Ms. Speights has received many accolades as a practicing lawyer, including being named as or listed in: the Minority Corporate Counsel 2009 Rainmakers; the Washingtonian Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington, DC (2009); The Best Lawyers in America 2007-2009; Washington Super Lawyers 2007-2009; Super Lawyers Top 50 Women Lawyers in Washington, DC (2007); Human Resource Executive’s Top 100 Most Powerful Employment Attorneys (2009); Human Resource Executive’s Top 50 Defense Employment Attorneys (2008); and The Legal Times Leading Labor and Employment Lawyers (2004). Ms. Speights is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Ms. Speights received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and her JD with Honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif from the George Washington University National Law Center.