Jackson Lewis

Weldon H. Latham is a Senior Partner in the Washington, D.C. Region office of Jackson Lewis LLP and the Chair of the Firm’s Corporate Diversity Counseling Group.  He represents Fortune 200 companies, major government agencies, and other complex organizations in a variety of legal matters, including crisis management, corporate diversity counseling, employment law, and government relations.

Mr. Latham advises clients in crisis management and diversity representation, complex civil rights reviews and employment law audits, as well as dispute resolution, investigations and defends class action lawsuits involving allegations of race, gender, and age discrimination and harassment law. He also directs confidential litigation assessments, corporate diversity compliance reviews, internal legal vulnerability assessments, and assists clients in developing "best practice," benchmarking, and diversity enhancement action plans.

Mr. Latham has over 20 years of senior partner level direction of major crisis management, civil rights program reviews, and employment discrimination litigation. Mr. Latham has a distinguished record of public service.  He is a member of the Board of Maryland Stadium Authority and has served as Assistant General Counsel, White House Office of Management and Budget; General Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development; Captain, Secretary of the Air Force, General Counsel’s Honors Program; member of the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Procurement and Technical Data Rights; Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army; member of the U.S. Small Business Administration National Advisory Council; and served on the Board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, as Chair of the Legal Committee, for more than a decade.

Mr. Latham is a columnist for DiversityInc and previously Minority Business Entrepreneur magazines.  In recent years, he has discussed diversity, civil rights and political issues on ABC News "Nightline," CNBC "Power Lunch," Bloomberg Business News, Court TV, The Washington Post, and other national media.  He also serves as a keynote speaker to Boards of Directors, CEOs, and executive management teams of major corporations, as well as business and trade associations on the subject of diversity and inclusion as a “business imperative,” “competitive advantage,” “legal vulnerability,” and the Washington political scene.

Among his numerous professional and community activities, Mr. Latham serves as Counsel to the PepsiCo Global Diversity and Inclusion Governance Council and the Omnicom Group Diversity Advisory Committee; a member of the National Employment Law Council, and the Economic Club of Washington.  He was previously the National Co-Chair, Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign, and Chair, Deloitte External Diversity Advisory Board and Secretary, Greater Washington Board of Trade.  He is listed in Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who Among African Americans, Who’s Who In America, holds the Martindale-Hubbell Preeminent AV Attorney Rating (the highest legal peer rating), and SmartCEO magazine’s Legal Elite of Washington, D.C.

Mr. Latham is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, and a former Guest Professor at both the University of Virginia and Howard University Schools of Law.  He also served on the Board of Trustees (Visitors) of the American University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University.  Mr. Latham holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Howard University, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and an Executive Management Certificate and has lectured at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Published Works