TowerFall2021

14 TOWER | FALL 2021 Harden’s experiences, both on campus and at home, combined to help him see himself as an individual with purpose, passion and a choice for a future – but not before he experienced a brush with death. In January 2006, about a year before completing his degree at KU, he was shot five times at point blank range during an altercation in Southwest Philadelphia. Hitting a Longevity Switch “I’m sitting there on a gurney, shot five times, and I say, ‘Well if this goes left, if you die, all of the things you’re proud of, all of the education, all of the hard work, all the gifts you have, it’ll be for naught,’” says Harden. Doctors told Harden he was extremely fortunate to be left with limited, permanent damage. He returned to Kutztown with a swollen right leg and a limp. It took about five months for his health to be restored. “There’s no difference between me or any of the friends that I’ve buried, or individuals who are sitting in jail, some of them for life,” says Harden. “I think I hit a ‘longevity switch.’” Harden says, “It’s hard to think about long-term needs when you’re just plain hungry.” One month later, Harden was recognized for his power to persuade during a campus forum on the controversial topics of affirmative action and the First Amendment, and that is when he was first encouraged to consider law school. Finding Reward in Paying it Forward After graduating from Kutztown, Harden went on to earn his law degree from Temple University Beasley School of Law. He says that at the time, his education at Temple seemed just as out of reach as the successes he has won today. His law school internships included working for a judge in a criminal court, a small criminal defense firm, and with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, a nonprofit public defense law firm for indigent criminal defendants. He now serves on the board of that organization. Harden decided that being a public defender was not a good fit for him, and he felt he could do more justice as a prosecutor. This brought him to his first job with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where he was an assistant district attorney assigned to the major trials division. He served on an acclaimed organized crime task force that helped significantly reduce Philadelphia’s non-fatal shooting and homicides. “I became a prosecutor and it was very rewarding, very difficult, very conflicted. There were no bright lines. There was no right or wrong. A lot of people like to imagine that there is, but there weren’t. But I thrived in that environment,” says Harden. “I knew my community. I tried my best to be as fair as possible and develop trust and be a representative of what a 21st-century prosecutor would look like – someone who cared about the defendant just as much as he cared about the person who may have had their rights violated.” Harden is now a longtime board member and past president of the Barristers Association of Philadelphia, which is the trade association for African-American lawyers in Philadelphia. His philosophies of inclusiveness, norm busting, wealth sharing, and breaking ceilings awarded him the association’s honor of “Outstanding Young Lawyer” of the year in 2020. Harden’s leadership also extends to roles with the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Urban Affairs Coalition and the Public Interest Law Center. “To be able to grab a bunch of young lawyers and show them the things they do every day when they walk into court matter, that the little sacrifices they are making will have big impacts, and to tell them, ‘Take that job, not that job. You’re capable of this, not that. Advocate for yourself here, not there,’’’ says Harden. “My biggest accomplishment has been moments where people feel comfortable in the spaces that I’ve discovered are remarkably comfortable for myself.” Record-Breaking Successes Today, Harden says working with Ross Feller Casey is his dream job. He celebrates opportunities to reverse the misfortunes of the unfortunate, something he identifies with closely. “The firm’s founding partners are three of the most respected lawyers in the country, and our firm has the resources to fix people’s lives that have been ruined by things like greed or systemic mistreatment of the poor. For me, I have always identified with everyday people and their everyday struggles. Our clients are people who have had their lives flipped upside down through very little fault of their own. Helping them regain some dignity is very important for me,” says Harden. In June 2020, Harden won a $6.25-million settlement with the city of Philadelphia on behalf of Terrance Lewis, who was wrongfully incarcerated for 21 years for a crime he did not commit. This followed a $9.6-million major medical malpractice verdict in December 2019 in Berks County that involved the failure to timely diagnose and treat cervical cancer in a teenage girl. While Harden may wrestle with what is on the horizon when it comes to big goals, his recent back-to-back, record-breaking successes hold true to his values of giving back to the community and helping people feel closer to whole. Kevin Harden Jr. was appointed to Kutztown University’s Council of Trustees in May.