The American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession has announced its honorees for the 2025 Spirit of Excellence Award, which celebrates the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession.
The awards will be presented during a celebratory luncheon on Feb. 1, 2025, at the ABA 2025 Midyear Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
The 2025 Spirit of Excellence Award recipients are Col. James M. Durant III, Craig B. Glidden, Judge Diane J. Humetewa, Kalpana Kotagal, and Karol Corbin Walker.
Col. James M. Durant III is chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science-Chicago, where he leads a legal staff across the United States that serves 11 of the 17 U.S. National Laboratories handling management and operation contracts, acquisitions and grants, patent applications and licensing actions totaling more than $8 billion annually. He is a principal legal adviser to the DOE Office of Science and its Combined Service Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and a career Senior Executive Service appointee who began with DOE in 2013 following a 26-year career with the U.S. Air Force where he retired as colonel.
Craig B. Glidden is president and chief administrative officer of General Motors-subsidiary Cruise. At Cruise, Glidden has infused GM’s commitment to safety, transforming GM’s global legal operations to support the company’s vision of a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Glidden also serves as the executive vice president and strategic adviser of GM. He joined GM in March 2015 as executive vice president and general counsel. In 2021, he was named executive vice president of global public policy and assumed the responsibilities of corporate secretary. He began leading cybersecurity and strategic technology initiatives in 2022. As of July 2024, Glidden transitioned out of his role as general counsel of GM and assumed the role of executive vice president and strategic adviser.
Judge Diane J. Humetewa has served as a U.S. district judge for the District of Arizona since 2014. Prior to her confirmation, she was special counsel to the president of Arizona State University, taught at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and practiced federal Indian law. She was a litigator in the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1996-2009, and in 2007, was confirmed as the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Humetewa currently serves on the Judicial Conference of the U.S.
Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction and chairs the 9th Circuit Court Committee on Tribal-Native Relations. She is a graduate of the ASU College of Law, a member of the Hopi Tribe and a former appellate judge on the Hopi Appellate Court.
Kalpana Kotagal joined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in August 2023. The first female commissioner of Indian descent, Kotagal is committed to ensuring the EEOC is accessible to underserved communities, including low-wage workers, people of color, immigrant and migrant communities and people in remote or rural areas. Before joining the EEOC, Kotagal was a partner at Cohen Milstein, where she specialized in civil rights and employment law and chaired the firm’s Hiring & Diversity Committee. She also represented women and other marginalized people in employment and civil rights class actions, often involving cutting-edge issues related to Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as wage and hour issues and the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act.
Karol Corbin Walker is a partner with Kaufman Dolowich LLP and focuses her practice on business, commercial and employment litigation matters. Her clients have included Fortune 500 corporations and other publicly and privately held corporations, financial institutions, entertainers and insurance companies. A trailblazer in the legal profession, Walker became the second African American chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession in 2023 and was the first person of color and first woman to serve as the state delegate to represent New Jersey on the Nominating Committee in the House of Delegates (2020). She is also the first African American president of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey (2015); first New Jersey attorney appointed as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary (2015); first African American female president of the National Conference of Bar Presidents (2012); first African American and youngest female president in the then 105-year history of the New Jersey State Bar Association (2003-2004); and first African American appointed as chair of the NJSBA’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee (1998).
For additional information on the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, visit www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/DiversityCommission.
The awards will be presented during a celebratory luncheon on Feb. 1, 2025, at the ABA 2025 Midyear Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
The 2025 Spirit of Excellence Award recipients are Col. James M. Durant III, Craig B. Glidden, Judge Diane J. Humetewa, Kalpana Kotagal, and Karol Corbin Walker.
Col. James M. Durant III is chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science-Chicago, where he leads a legal staff across the United States that serves 11 of the 17 U.S. National Laboratories handling management and operation contracts, acquisitions and grants, patent applications and licensing actions totaling more than $8 billion annually. He is a principal legal adviser to the DOE Office of Science and its Combined Service Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and a career Senior Executive Service appointee who began with DOE in 2013 following a 26-year career with the U.S. Air Force where he retired as colonel.
Craig B. Glidden is president and chief administrative officer of General Motors-subsidiary Cruise. At Cruise, Glidden has infused GM’s commitment to safety, transforming GM’s global legal operations to support the company’s vision of a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Glidden also serves as the executive vice president and strategic adviser of GM. He joined GM in March 2015 as executive vice president and general counsel. In 2021, he was named executive vice president of global public policy and assumed the responsibilities of corporate secretary. He began leading cybersecurity and strategic technology initiatives in 2022. As of July 2024, Glidden transitioned out of his role as general counsel of GM and assumed the role of executive vice president and strategic adviser.
Judge Diane J. Humetewa has served as a U.S. district judge for the District of Arizona since 2014. Prior to her confirmation, she was special counsel to the president of Arizona State University, taught at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and practiced federal Indian law. She was a litigator in the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1996-2009, and in 2007, was confirmed as the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Humetewa currently serves on the Judicial Conference of the U.S.
Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction and chairs the 9th Circuit Court Committee on Tribal-Native Relations. She is a graduate of the ASU College of Law, a member of the Hopi Tribe and a former appellate judge on the Hopi Appellate Court.
Kalpana Kotagal joined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in August 2023. The first female commissioner of Indian descent, Kotagal is committed to ensuring the EEOC is accessible to underserved communities, including low-wage workers, people of color, immigrant and migrant communities and people in remote or rural areas. Before joining the EEOC, Kotagal was a partner at Cohen Milstein, where she specialized in civil rights and employment law and chaired the firm’s Hiring & Diversity Committee. She also represented women and other marginalized people in employment and civil rights class actions, often involving cutting-edge issues related to Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as wage and hour issues and the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act.
Karol Corbin Walker is a partner with Kaufman Dolowich LLP and focuses her practice on business, commercial and employment litigation matters. Her clients have included Fortune 500 corporations and other publicly and privately held corporations, financial institutions, entertainers and insurance companies. A trailblazer in the legal profession, Walker became the second African American chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession in 2023 and was the first person of color and first woman to serve as the state delegate to represent New Jersey on the Nominating Committee in the House of Delegates (2020). She is also the first African American president of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey (2015); first New Jersey attorney appointed as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary (2015); first African American female president of the National Conference of Bar Presidents (2012); first African American and youngest female president in the then 105-year history of the New Jersey State Bar Association (2003-2004); and first African American appointed as chair of the NJSBA’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee (1998).
For additional information on the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, visit www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/DiversityCommission.
