Speaker Bio

Kendra Abercrombie currently serves as a Legal Recruiting and Professional Development Manager at Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Prior to joining Willkie Kendra served as the Legal Recruiting Manager for Benesch Law. Where she was able to help the firm commit to diversity and inclusion through its recruiting process.

Prior to joining Benesch Law she served as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, where she promoted integrity, civility, and professionalism among the lawyers and judges of Illinois. In this role, Kendra lead the Commission’s educational and advocacy initiatives aimed at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the legal and justice systems.

As DEI Manager, Kendra developed and delivered legal education on DEI and other professionalism topics to lawyers, judges, and law students, and performed outreach across the state on behalf of the Commission. She also supported the Commission’s lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring program and managed its involvement in Jumpstart, a law school preparatory program for historically underrepresented law students.

Before joining the Commission, Kendra was Associate Director of Admissions and Diversity Recruitment and Assistant Director of Admissions and Diversity Initiatives at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. Earlier in her career, Kendra was an Admissions Counselor and Recruiter at Arizona Summit Law School.

Kendra has served as an instructor of legal research and writing at the Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity and an adjunct professor in economics at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Ind.

Kendra holds a JD from Arizona Summit Law School, an MBA from the Kogod School of Business at American University, and a BA from the University of Georgia.  In April 2021, Kendra received the Dean Frank Motley Outstanding Faculty and Staff Award from Maurer’s Black Law Student Association.