TowerFall2021

FALL 2021 | TOWER 13 Having problems that are not really problems, according to Kevin Harden Jr. ’07 , has been a problem – at least lately. The catastrophic injury and civil rights attorney with Ross Feller Casey in Greater Philadelphia recently won back-to-back, record- setting verdicts and settlements inside six months. First in 2019, he won the largest-ever verdict in Berks County for a medical malpractice case, which was followed in 2020 by the highest civil settlement in an exoneration case in Pennsylvania’s history. The problem, Harden says, is how to set and achieve goals after these monumental successes, especially without a script to follow or trailblazers to provide advice. “The difficulty in defining goals, defining the steps to achieve those goals, when those goals are amorphous, is beyond me,” says Harden. “In the legal profession, there have been many glass ceilings specifically for black lawyers and for women lawyers, and there’s no real roadmap for a lawyer like myself. When I ask my mentors for advice, they frequently say they’ve never encountered situations such as those I’ve encountered because I’m in a generation of lawyers who are achieving things that have never occurred before.” This difficulty setting goals has roots in Harden’s youth. Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Harden struggled in school, had friends who were in and out of juvenile placement, and eventually became a survivor of gun violence himself. So, long-term aspirations didn’t land on Harden’s radar until much later in life. Resilience Early in Life Harden’s parents were separated, with his father as his primary caregiver and mother living apart from him on and off during his childhood. But he carried a secret about his mother’s health that took a heavy emotional toll on him. “My mother was HIV positive. I discovered that when I was 12 or 13, but no one knew that I knew. I overheard a conversation my father was having with his mother,” says Harden. “I don’t think I revealed to someone that I knew my mother had HIV until a week before I graduated from college.” A self-described “fireball,” Harden says that his concern for his mother and the family’s finances led to behavioral problems that eventually got him expelled from Central High School, Philadelphia’s No. 1 magnet school. “I was constantly agitated. My mother was sick. I was poor. I was always tired from working and had to give up things like sports because I was working. I would argue with teachers and staff. I just wanted to be left alone, but that’s not what happens in high school. So, I would get into shouting matches over things as simple as a missed homework assignment or being sleepy in class.” Harden worked two jobs at the time, including being a full-time manager at McDonald’s at 16 years old – he even hired his father to work the overnight shift. When his high school experience at Central ended, he landed at John Bartram High School near his home. Making the KU Connection At Bartram, Harden befriended a visiting counselor who sparked his life-changing connection to Kutztown University – Jeff Jones, who was KU’s associate director of admissions at the time. “College was like hitting the lottery,” says Harden. “I did not know that I was qualified for college.” He remembers sending Jones his SAT scores. “I faxed them that night from work and he called me on my cellphone,” says Harden. “‘I need you to fill out your financial aid forms. How much money did your mama and daddy make last year?’ I said, ‘Not much. Me and my dad work at McDonald’s, and my dad’s a single father.’ ‘Well then, congratulations, son, you’re going to get a full scholarship to college.’ And that was it. I never applied anywhere else.” A Lawyer in the Making The kind of lawyer that Harden would become started taking shape at Kutztown, when he was exposed to people with varied backgrounds and life experiences. “I was in a class with people who were suburban, who were in between rural and suburban, people who lived in Allentown, who grew up on a farm, people who were homeschooled, people who just didn’t think like me,” says Harden. “It allowed me to humanize perspectives that weren’t my own, and it’s been remarkably useful in my legal career.” Harden was undecided before choosing to major in criminal justice and credits department chair Dr. Jonathan Kremser as being “the first person who challenged me to think about criminal justice a little bit differently. “I just remember him interrogating our thought processes around how we viewed things like mass shootings or school shootings, things like harm reduction.” Harden still uses some of those psychological frameworks in his career today. BY MEGAN SCIARRINO Alumnus Dedicates Career to Defending ‘Everyday People’