Partner, Detroit Office
Jackson Lewis LLP

Roderick D. Gillum is a Partner in the Detroit office of Jackson Lewis LLP and a member of the Firm's Corporate Diversity Counseling and the Corporate Compliance/Governance Practice Groups.

Mr. Gillum's practice concentrates on corporate strategies related to diversity planning, labor relations, crisis management, and legal risk avoidance, including managing strategic labor and personnel planning in the context of workforce restructurings, class actions, and corporate reorganizations. Mr. Gillum has earned a national reputation for corporate diversity and public interest initiatives.

Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Mr. Gillum was a senior leader at General Motors, where he rose to become Secretary to the GM Board of Directors, and later Vice President, Corporate Responsibility & Diversity. In this dual role, Mr. Gillum was at the forefront of the company's diversity strategies relative to both internal human resources as well as external relations with vendors, minority dealers, and national civil rights and political leaders. He was also Chairman of the General Motors Foundation and Chairman of Motors Enterprises Incorporated, a subsidiary of General Motors, specializing in providing capital for GM minority suppliers.

Previously, Mr. Gillum was the Chief Personnel, Benefits and Labor Attorney at GM's Legal Staff, where he was responsible for all human resources and labor relations legal matters. He also served in two separate capacities at Saturn Corporation, a GM subsidiary: Manager Strategic Planning and as Saturn Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Mr. Gillum earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University in 1972, and a Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston in 1975. After being awarded a Sloan Fellowship, Mr. Gillum received a Masters of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June 1985. Prior to joining GM as an attorney in 1979, he was an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board in Detroit. His previous experience also included serving as Administrative Assistant to the late State of Michigan Senator Arthur Cartwright.

Mr. Gillum was elected by his peers and serves as a Fellow in the American Bar Association's College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He is also a recipient of the National Bar Association's prestigious Equal Justice Award. Mr. Gillum serves on the Board of Holcim, Inc.; W.K. Kellogg Foundation; National Urban League; Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Shorenstein Center; The Washington DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. (Chair); Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (Vice Chair); The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Chair) and New Detroit.