Cocktail Reception, Seated Dinner & Awards Program

When & Where

Meet Our Honorees

Danielle Conley is a litigation partner in the Washington DC office of Latham & Watkins where she leads the firm’s Anti-Discrimination & Civil Rights practice. A trusted adviser with deep experience in the public and private sector, Ms. Conley helps companies, educational institutions, and other large organizations navigate challenging regulatory, enforcement, and internal matters that involve substantial reputational risk.

Ms. Conley has significant experience conducting sensitive internal investigations following reported allegations of sexual misconduct and race- and gender-based discrimination and has led multiple internal reviews and risk assessments on issues pertaining to racial and gender equity. She also routinely counsels clients on best practices for developing and implementing anti-harassment compliance programs and corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Prior to joining Latham, Ms. Conley served as Deputy Counsel to the President where she established and led the first-ever White House Counsel’s Office team dedicated to civil rights and advancing racial, gender, and LGBTQ equity. In that role, she advised the President, Vice President, and other senior White House officials on a wide array of legal issues related to voting and democracy, policing and criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, tech accountability, and judicial nominations. Among other high-profile efforts, Ms. Conley helped shepherd Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination and confirmation to the US Supreme Court.

During the Obama administration, Ms. Conley served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where she worked on a wide range of litigation and policy issues and managed some of the agency’s most significant and high-profile civil rights enforcement matters.
Ms. Conley currently chairs Latham’s Women Enriching Business (WEB) Committee, where she focuses on promoting the long-term success of women lawyers and executives around the globe. She is also a Director of Graham Holdings Company and has served on several nonprofit boards, including for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Ms. Conley has repeatedly garnered recognition for her work in the public and private sector, including from the National Law Journal, the Washington Business Journal, the Diversity Journal, the Root, and Essence Magazine.

Harry Elish has spent over four decades working with private clients in the financial services industry. Currently, he is a Managing Director and senior partner with Value Added Partners at UBS, an eleven person team providing financial planning and investment services for clients with over $3.35 billion under management. His service to clients and his success has been rewarded with industry accolades from Barron’s, Forbes/Shook, and The Financial Times.

Harry’s work in the non-profit sector has focused on enhancing educational opportunities for students in the New York City area. He served as the President of Girls Quest, an organization that providing summer experiential learnings, and as the Treasurer of the Academy of the City Charter School, a successful K-8 neighborhood institution. He also currently acts as the Treasurer of the Isaac Tuttle Fund, an organization helping senior citizens in Manhattan.

Harry joined the Board of the Kaplan Education Foundation in 2014, becoming the first person unaffiliated with Kaplan to serve. In the intervening years, Harry has furthered the organization’s mission by fundraising, mentoring our scholars, monitoring our finances, recruiting other outside Board members, and brainstorming with our leadership.

Harry and his wife, Nora, an educator, live in Manhattan, where they raised their two grown children, Andrew and James. In his free time, Harry is an avid reader of history books, an intrepid traveler, a passionate theater-goer, and one of ESPN’s most loyal viewers.

Make a fully tax-deductible gift in honor of one of our award recipients or help us serve even more Kaplan Scholars this year.

Please respond by May 1 to be included in our event materials. For more information, contact kef@blbnyc.com.