The Right Thing To Do: Equity Leader Leon Silver Honored At Power Up Conference
Leon Silver, speaking at a recent event, receives an award at The Power Up Conference February 29.
“I’m just some guy doing good work.”
Modesty aside, Leon Silver, member of Take The Lead’s board of directors, and honoree at the upcoming Power Up Conference, may downplay the enormity of his role and influence in gender equity work for decades.
But recognizing his dedication to gender parity is what is easy.
“Member of @takeleadwomen ‘s board of directors, and honoree at the upcoming #PowerUpConference, recognizing @LeonBSilver ‘s dedication to gender #parity is easy.”
The co-managing partner of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani's Phoenix office and the law firm’s National Practice Group leader for the Retail & Hospitality and Government Regulatory & Administrative Law practice groups, Silver adds, “The recognition is nice, but the work is what’s important to me.”
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Silver grew up in Westchester and said his father was the first surgeon to offer a surgical fellowship to a female doctor.
Read Gloria Feldt’s interview with Leon Silver in Take The Lead
Interested in music and visual arts at a young age, Silver attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., where he studied fine arts and graduated in 1984.
“My classes were always a bunch of women and me; maybe that’s attributable to my work, being around strong women everywhere I went,” says Silver, who says he wrote a paper in college, “Can a man be a feminist artist?”
Silver says he recalls asking one of three female professors in the art department, who was teaching the art history survey class, why not one of the works mentioned in the class was by a woman artist.
“She started to cry,” Silver says.
After college, Silver became a high school art teacher in Coolidge, Arizona, where he was also confronted with gender inequities and hardships endured by female students.
Silver writes in the 2017 edition of Institute for Inclusion in The Legal Profession Review : “My professional life started as a high school teacher in a small town. There I witnessed the life changing effects of teen pregnancy—effects that almost entirely fell on the pregnant female teen—and a culture that did not value higher education.”
He adds, “When I decided to go to law school, I also decided that no matter my area of practice, I was going to be somehow involved in promoting education for teens to learn about reproductive health, to make smart, responsible choices, and to do whatever you could as a person to realize and fulfill your potential.”
In a recent interview with Take The Lead, Silver says, “I saw teen pregnancy, poverty and poor parenting and that got me interested in going to law school.” Silver started law school at Arizona State University in 1986, graduating in 1989.
“In a recent interview with @takeleadwomen, @LeonBSilver says, “I saw teen pregnancy, poverty and poor parenting and that got me interested in going to law school.” #WomensIssues”
Aware of the lack of parity and the need for reproductive justice and legal rights for all women, Silver began volunteering for Planned Parenthood in Arizona, and through PPA more than 30 years ago, met Gloria Feldt, now co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
“I stayed with Planned Parenthood Arizona and became the board chair and trustee,” Silver says, as Feldt moved up to run the national organization out of New York.
“When Gloria said, ‘I’m starting Take The Lead,’ I said, ‘Where do I sign?’ Six years later, here we are.”
““When Gloria said, ‘I’m starting Take The Lead,’ I said, ‘Where do I sign?’ Six years later, here we are,” says @LeonBSilver. #PowerUpConference #TakeTheLead”
Silver is the founder and leader of the Liberty Project, a reproductive rights think tank at his alma mater, the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU.
“I started that 15 years ago,” Silver says, and the first student chair of the Liberty Project, Rebecca Cain, is now my law partner.” Silver received the first "Fabulous Attorney Advisor Award" from the ASU law school for his work with the Liberty Project.
“. @LeonBSilver is the founder and leader of the Liberty Project, a reproductive rights think tank at his alma mater, @ASUCollegeOfLaw. #WomensRights”
Read more in take The Lead on Rebecca Cain
According to the law firm’s website, Silver is “also a member of the Commercial Litigation, Employment, and Privacy, Data & Cybersecurity practice groups. With 30 years’ experience handling complicated business and real estate trials, arbitrations, mediations and appeals, Silver has a proven record of success in the most difficult, high dollar disputes the firm's clients have faced.”
The site continues, “Silver represents national and multi-national retailers, restaurants, hotels and management companies, government regulated entities, utilities, sophisticated real estate investors and developers, small businesses and business people. As leader of the firm’s Retail & Hospitality and Government Regulatory & Administrative Law practice groups, he provides counsel to his clients on all aspects of their business operations, with a special expertise in the protection of proprietary information, privacy and data security, preventing or protecting clients from government over-reach or over-regulation, employment issues and in the prosecution or defense of ‘high stakes,’ ‘bet the company’ and other high-dollar business tort litigation.”
On his own efforts on building diversity and inclusion in law, Silver commented, “Gender diversity is something clients are beginning to expect and appreciate. At the end of the day, you don’t create a diverse workforce for appearance. You do it because it’s the better practice—because you want the best people at the table. And the best people don’t all look the same,” Silver wrote in Take The Lead in 2015.
Silver, who has been granted lifetime achievement awards from Planned Parenthood Arizona and YWCA of Greater Phoenix, where he is a former board member, says his work with YWCA was critically important to him.
“Their focus was on economics. You have to have economic and reproductive freedom, you need both,” Silver says.
Dana Campbell Saylor, the first chair of the Take The Lead Arizona Leadership Council and CEO of the Arizona YWCA Metropolitan Phoenix, is also being honored at the Power Up Conference.
“They are both powerful and committed allies in working to achieving gender parity,” says Feldt. “This award recognizes their dedication to a cause that benefits both women and men,” Feldt tells Take The Lead.
“@LeonBSilver says his work with @ywcaAZwas critically important to him: “Their focus was on economics. You have to have economic and reproductive freedom, you need both.””
Read an interview with Gloria Feldt and Leon Silver in Huffington Post
A grandfather, father of two and stepfather of four, Silver says he sees the need for gender equity in all aspects of life. Silver has more than three decades of experience and expertise in personal privacy and gender equality issues, and has lectured and published articles on the importance of inclusion and gender parity in law firms.
Named one of the “100 Best Lawyers in Arizona,” and recognized as a “Top Ten Litigator,” Silver has also been honored with The Peggy Goldwater Award, the Tribute to Leadership Advocacy Award and the Let Freedom Ring, Legal Community Leadership Award, in recognition of his years of volunteer legal service.
The new award for Silver at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference is one he also greatly deserves, as he works for gender equity in the legal profession and also in fair representation of clients.
“The new award for @LeonBSilver at @takeleadwomen ‘s #PowerUp Conference is one he greatly deserves, as he works for #genderequity in the legal profession. ”
“When you bring a diverse group of individuals together to make decisions about firm growth and client development, devise legal strategies, present a case to a jury, or give back to the community, you’ll be far more successful than you would have been with a homogenized approach, developed by a room full of clones nodding their heads in unison,” Silver writes.
“I have always been passionate on the topic of diversity,” Silver told Take The Lead in 2018.
In the 2017 report from the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, Silver writes, “Reaching full equality in the legal field is an important and ongoing struggle, but it is not a challenge to fear, and we must recognize the progress that has been made.”
He continues, “As I work to grow my firm, my goal is for the office to succeed and for people to be fulfilled in their professions—men and women alike. To do this, we have to overcome the ‘this is how it’s always been done’ mentality. I hope that by ‘taking the lead,’ I will be a part of the movement to disrupt antiquated stereotypes regarding our values and roles.”
A true lifelong advocate for equity, Silver also finds time to honor his artistic side, as his abstract and colorful paintings are publicly displayed and receive wide recognition. He also has produced four musical albums as a performer.
“I come from a very musical family,” Silver says, “My primary instrument is the bass, but when I play in bands, I play guitar, piano, flute, cello, violin.”
His most recent band is called Guilty As Sin, and he also played in another band earlier in 2020, called Crazy Finger.
Silver says he is looking forward to the Power Up Conference where his friend and ally of more than three decades, Feldt, will deliver his award.
“I’ve known Gloria since I was in law school. She is inspiring, motivating and there is no stopping her,” Silver says.
““I’ve known @GloriaFeldt since I was in law school. She is inspiring, motivating and there is no stopping her,” says @LeonBSilver. #WomenLeaders”
“I think maybe 30 years ago we saw a lot of ourselves in each other. When I was a young lawyer, there was no stopping me either. I am headstrong and passionate and we see the cause the same way.”
He adds, “And I will keep showing up.”
