John Payton, Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, has been the lead counsel in some of the most significant civil rights cases in recent times. The list includes the affirmative action cases Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger. Next Tuesday, April 6, he will visit The City College of New York (CCNY) to lead a panel discussion on the Grutter case, which resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on law school admissions, and deliver The Skadden, Arps Lecture in Legal Studies. His lecture topic will be "Democracy & Diversity." Both events are in The Great Hall of Shepard Hall and are free and open to the public. The panel discussion begins at 4 p.m., followed by the lecture at 6 p.m. Mr. Payton’s co-panelists on the Grutter v. Bollinger discussion will include: Dennis J. Shields, CCNY Acting Vice President, Student Affairs and Dr. Lynda G. Dodd, Joseph H. Flom Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science in The Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Honors Program at CCNY. Mr. Shields, then the assistant dean for admissions at the University of Michigan Law School, was a named defendant in Grutter v. Bollinger, in which the Supreme Court upheld the institution’s affirmative action admissions policy. More on this story.