J. Wil Morris, Esquire
Mr. Morris has been a member of the New York and Florida Bar since 1992 and
1995, respectively. After obtaining a degree in Business Management and Finance
from Brooklyn College, Mr. Morris attended and graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law (cum laude) in 1991. Mr. Morris was a Member of the
University of Miami Inter-American Law Review and served as an Associate Justice
of the Moot court Board.
After graduating from law school, Mr. Morris worked in the New York offices of the
prestigious law firm of Baker & McKenzie. As a young Associate, in addition to being
involved with representing international clients, Mr. Morris authored âService of
Process In Switzerland,â New York Law Journal, Page 3, Column 1, October 17,
1991, reprinted in 1 New & Burrows, The Practice of International Litigation, 1992;
âObtaining Evidence from U.S. Nationals Abroad,â New York Law Journal, Page 3,
Column 1, October 21, 1993. In 1994, Mr. Morris relocated to Miami, Florida where,
after a brief stint away from the practice of law, he took a job with the then small but
very prestigious and now known as law firm of Tew, Cardinas, et al.
In 1997 and as a precursor to opening his own firm, Mr. Morris briefly joined the firm
of Isicoff & Ragatz. Mr. Morris opened his own firm as a sole practitioner in 1999
offering a broad array of legal services from civil litigation to criminal matters. It was
while being a sole practitioner that in 2009 Mr. Morris began focusing, almost
exclusively, on the mortgage crisis and ultimately joined forces with other attorneys
and formed the precursor to what was Morris | duPont, PA and then Morris | Barrow
LLP â a full-service consumer law practice. Mr. Morris now practices without partners
at Morris Legal, LLC.
From 2009 to 2016, Mr. Morris has been the co-host of the Home Mortgage Law
Show which aired every Saturday in South Florida on WIOD, 610 on the AM dial;
and simulcasted in Tampa WFLA, 970 on the AM dial. As the name suggests, the
Home Mortgage Law Show addressed issues affecting homeowners as well as all
other consumer related topics, including bankruptcy, debt settlement and credit
restoration.
For the past four years, Mr. Morris has been an appointed member of the Miami-
Dade County Planning Advisory Board which is tasked with making
recommendations â following a televised public hearing â to the Miami-Dade Board
of County Commissioners relating to zoning and other matters. In addition to being
certified in defending foreclosure cases, Mr. Morris is a seasoned litigator who has
handled and tried cases involving complex commercial transactions, personal injury,
civil rights and criminal issues.
Rajat Gupta joined the board of directors of Project2Morrow in 2023. He is an Indian-American business executive who, as CEO, was the first foreign-born managing director of management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company from 1994 to 2003. Gupta was a board member of corporations including Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble and American Airlines, as well as an advisor to non-profit organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is the co-founder of the Indian School of Business, American India Foundation, New Silk Route and Scandent Solutions.
Gupta was a student at Modern School in New Delhi. After high school, Gupta ranked 15th in the nation in the entrance exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology, IIT JEE. He received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1971. His economics professor at IIT Delhi was Subramanian Swamy, who wrote his recommendation letter when he applied for Harvard Business School. Declining a job from the prestigious domestic firm ITC Limited, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1973. Gupta graduated with distinction as a Baker Scholar. Gupta remarked that the first time he saw an airplane was when he flew to ITC at their request to inform them he would be attending Harvard.
Gupta joined McKinsey & Company in 1973 as one of the earliest Indian Americans at the consultancy. He was initially rejected because of inadequate work experience, a decision that was overturned after his Harvard Business School professor Walter J. Salmon called Ron Daniel, then head of the New York office and later also the managing director of McKinsey, wrote on Gupta's behalf.[6]
Gupta's mentors at McKinsey included Ron Daniel, the former managing director who as senior partner first hired Gupta into the New York office, and Anupam (Tino) Puri, the first Indian at the firm and eventual senior partner. He, in turn, mentored Anil Kumar as another early Indian-American at the consultancy. Gupta and Kumar "were the face of McKinsey in India." According to The Financial Times, "the two operated as a forceful double-act to secure business for McKinsey, win access in Washington and build a brotherhood of donors around the Hyderabad-based ISB and a handful of social initiatives."
Gupta began his career in New York before moving to Scandinavia to become the head of McKinsey offices in 1981. He did well in what was then considered a "backwater" area; this is where he first made his mark. Elected senior partner in 1984, he became head of the Chicago office in 1990.
In 1994 he was elected the firm's first managing director (chief executive) born outside of the US, and then re-elected twice in 1997 and 2000. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the first Indians to successfully break through the glass ceiling, as the first Indian-born CEO of a multinational corporation (not just a consultancy). During Gupta's time as head of McKinsey, the firm opened offices in 23 new countries and doubled its consultant base to 891 partners, increasing revenue 280 percent to $3.4 billion. His annual salary was estimated at $5â10 million USD. Gupta joined Project2Morrow with another Harvard alumni Dr. Howard Moskowitz.
Girardin Jean-Louis is an American academic who is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.
He serves as Director of the Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program and the "Program to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research" (PRIDE BSM) Institute. Dr. Jean-Louisâ translational behavioral sleep and circadian research was recently featured in Science and NPR. In 2020, he was named âPioneer in Minority Health and Health Disparitiesâ and one of the Community of Scholars' most inspiring Black scientists in America.
In 2021, he received the Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award from the Sleep Research Society, and in 2022 the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Jean-Louis studies the sociocultural and environmental determinants of health.[4]His research considers sleep medicine and health equity, an in particular, how low-income and minority communities are impacted by insufficient sleep.[5] He is particularly interested in why sleep apnea is under-diagnosed in African-Americans. In 2008, he showed that less than 40% of African-American patients with sleep apnea agreed to having a diagnostic test.[5] In an effort to understand the sleep behavior of minority groups, Jean-Louis has led several outreach initiatives. These include programs in churches, barber shops and health salons.[1]
Jean-Louis was awarded an National Institute on Aging (NIA) Leadership Career Award in 2018.[6] In 2020, he was selected as one of The Community of Scholars' most inspiring Black scientists in America.[7]Alongside his academic research, Jean-Louis has launched several initiatives to support underrepresented minority groups in science and medicine. As the satisfaction and medical outcomes of communities of color are impacted by the racial/ethnic heritage of the physician, Jean-Louis believes there is an urgent need for more diverse medical practitioners.[8]
