Kenneth C. Frazier

Kenneth Carleton Frazier was born in 1954 in North Philadelphia to Otis and Clara Frazier. Clara passed away in 1967 when Ken was 12 years old. Otis, a janitor and shop steward for UPS, modeled strong advocacy for his son at a young age—acting, in Ken's words, as "a poor man's lawyer" on behalf of his coworkers. Otis filed grievances for people when they were suspended and often advocated on their behalf to make sure that they were being treated fairly and honorably on the job.

Frazier graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1975. Inspired by the contribution of lawyers to the civil rights movement, he decided to attend Harvard Law School, where he earned a J.D. in 1978. Shortly thereafter, he joined Drinker Biddle & Reath as a litigation associate. The initial adjustment to a primarily white, upper class environment posed some challenges for this young, black, lawyer from North Philadelphia but, within a short period of time, he rose to become a partner in the firm and one of the most sought-after trial lawyers in the practice.

Frazier credits his parents with teaching him that all people deserve to be treated with respect and compassion—a value that became a factor in his desire to help others through legal advocacy, even if they could not afford to pay.  He found support for this desire at Drinker Biddle—a firm known for its strong commitment to pro bono service. "We all go to law school, I think, fundamentally thinking that we're going to help people," he says. "I often found that those [pro bono] cases gave me a greater sense of reward as a lawyer." The CEO of a major global pharmaceutical manufacturer, he also insists that equal access to justice makes good business sense:

One of Frazier's  most memorable  pro bono experiences came when he participated in an American Bar Association program whose mission was to level the playing field between white and black attorneys in apartheid-era South Africa. He spent four consecutive summer sabbaticals in the mid-1980s teaching trial skills to young black lawyers in South Africa who, he came to realize, were not being offered a solid legal education. The program offered an incredible opportunity to live and work in Soweto and to teach with other "all-star" American lawyers like Mike Tigar and the late Judge Higginbotham. One of the lawyers trained by Frazier went on to become chief counsel for President Mbeki years later.

By 1991, Frazier had a reputation at the firm for being very committed to pro bono service, and Esther Lardent of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project thought him the obvious choice for the James Willie "Bo" Cochran case. It took some convincing, given Frazier's heavy workload and new baby at home, but Lardent and two junior associates at the firm, Michael Holston and Seamus Duffy, did just that. They convinced Frazier to represent this death row inmate in Alabama, and he did so for the next six years, even after his departure from Drinker Biddle. Initially, the team thought they would explore legal arguments to get Cochran off of death row. They could not have anticipated the change of course that was to come with the realization that Bo Cochran was innocent. He had been twice been found guilty of capital murder, and, in 1991, had already spent 18 years on death row. Batson v. Kentucky (1986)—a decision that held that prosecutors could not use peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on their race—ultimately provided the winning argument and led the 11^th United States Courts of Appeals to overturn Cochran's conviction in 1995. Evidence of a police cover up cleared his name at a retrial in 1997. The jury deliberated for just an hour before finding Cochran not guilty.

Speaking of this experience at a gathering of the American Law Institute, Frazier said:

Frazier worked on cases for Merck while at Drinker Biddle and, in 1992, was offered a position as vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Astra Merck Group. From there, he was promoted in 1994, 1997, and 1999. In 2006, he became executive vice president and general counsel of Merck. As general counsel, Frazier greatly expanded Merck's pro bono program, which had been initiated by his predecessor, Mary McDonald, in 1994.

He co-founded a private charter school serving at-risk youth in Philadelphia and served on the Board of Legal Services of New Jersey from 2002 to 2007. Frazier remains committed to the mission of that organization, stating, "It's really important—as we, as a society, try to decide what we're going to do with scarce resources—that we remember how important it is for us to provide the first principle of government, which is legal representation and equal access to the courts."

Throughout a successful career, Frazier has not wavered in his commitment to equal justice or his desire to help those less fortunate. He says, "There's some idealism that we all have, that makes us want to go to law school, and hopefully we don't lose that along the way. And, fortunately for me, there were people in my law firm and in my life who reminded me of the importance of lawyers in terms of the institution of justice."

In the words of former colleague and Cochran co-counsel, Seamus Duffy, "Ken has had the opportunity to serve the ends of equal justice from so many angles … the fact that he has been able to do it in the court room and in the board room, I think, is just something to admire."

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

2015 Executive Leadership Foundation (ELF) Lifetime Achievement Award
2015 Support Center for Child Advocates Judge Lois G. Forer Child Advocacy Award
2014 Black Enterprise Corporate Executive of the Year
2013 New Jersey Law Journal Award for Lifetime Achievement as Corporate Counsel
2012 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund National Equal Justice Award
2009 Equal Justice Initiative Equal Justice Champion Award
2008 National Legal Aid & Defender Association Exemplar Award
2004 Association of Corporate Counsel Excellence in Corporate Practice Award
2003 Pro Bono Institute Laurie D. Zelon Award
2003 Pennsylvania State University Distinguished Alumni Award
2001 Pennlyvania State University Alumni Fellow Award