A new diversity internship program has been established by the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association and named in honor of a former state bar president noted for his commitment to initiatives aimed at increasing diversity in the legal profession, Kenneth G. Standard.
The diversity internships will be awarded possibly beginning as soon as the summer of 2006, said Barbara Levi, a past chair of the section. The program will be administered by the section's Internship Committee, which consists of Levi, Section Chair Mitchell F. Borger, Federated Department Stores, Inc., and members Allison Tomlinson, DY Consultants, and Fawn Horvath, Federated Dept. Stores, Inc.
Mr. Standard, of Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C., concentrates his practice in labor and employment law matters. He is the immediate past president of the Association. Before becoming a partner at Epstein, Becker & Green, he was of counsel, and then special counsel at Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Prior to that, he served as assistant general counsel for labor relations, environmental and benefit plans at Con Ed; director of the Office of Legal Services for New York City Schools; and vice-president and senior counsel of the Products Division of the Bristol-Myers Company.
Mr. Standard sits on several NYSBA committees and is co-chair of the Committee on Diversity and Leadership Development and is a member ofthe American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. The NYSBA committees he currently serves on include Executive and Finance. He also chairs the Special Committee on Outreach to Youth.
Mr. Standard is active in New York City's not-for-profit community, having served as president of the 13,000-member Harvard Club of New York City and currently being a director of the nation's largest not-for-profit home health care provider, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and chairman of the board of its Family Care Services subsidiary. He also has garnered many awards, including being named by Crain's New York Businessto its list of "100 Most Powerful Minority Business Leaders in New York."