Timothy A. Wilkins

Corporate lawyer Timothy Wilkins was born on March 5, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois to Elizabeth Rae Sweeney Wilkins and Julian Byrd Wilkins. He received his A.B. degree from Harvard College in 1986 and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in 1993.

Between college and graduate school, Wilkins worked as an analyst in the international underwriting department at Nikko Securities in Tokyo, Japan. Afterwards, he began his law career as a corporate associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York City and Tokyo. In 1999, Wilkins joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he spent eight years handling international transactions in the Tokyo office. In 2002, he became a corporate and M&A partner in 2002 in New York City, making him the firm’s first black partner to work in its United States offices. In 2019, Wilkins was named global partner for client sustainability. He also was a founding member of Freshfields’ global diversity committee and co-head of its U.S. diversity committee. Wilkins served as an adjunct professor of political science at CUNY Hunter College and, since 2021, as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law School.

Wilkins is the founding co-chair of the steering committee of The Opportunity Agenda and has served on the diversity and inclusion committee and city bar fund of the New York City Bar Association. He also has been a member of the Council of Urban Professionals and a director of Equality Now and the New York Public Theater, where he was co-chair of the governance committee. In addition, Wilkins was a committee member of the Cyrus Vance Center for International Justice and was appointed to the board of New York City Global Partners by Mayor Bill De Blasio in 2015. De Blasio later appointed him to the board of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he chaired the governance committee. Wilkins also formerly served on the board of the Dalton School and as vice-chair of the legal services committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. In 2021, he was named chair of the board of New York Public Radio.

Wilkins received the Council of Urban Professionals Catalyst: Change Agent Award in 2014 and was named the Minority Lawyer of the Year in Private Practice by Chambers Diversity Awards USA in 2016. He was the highest-ranked lawyer on the 2016 Financial Times list of 100 Leading Ethnic Minority Executives and recognized by EMpower as a leader on issues of racial justice and equality. In 2017 and 2020, Wilkins was the highest-ranked lawyer on EMpower and Yahoo! Finance’s Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives. He also received the Atlas 2010 M&A Deal of the Year Award for his role in Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Car Corporation.

Wilkins lives in New York City. He has two children, Miranda Wilkins and Spencer Wilkins.

Timothy Wilkins was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 21, 2022.