40 under 40 — Byron Crowe

Kappa, 2010 — Recognized in: 2018

Graduating from Tufts University in 2010, Byron’s list of personal and professional accomplishments is dizzying. A lawyer by trade, Byron attended Cornell Law School where he was a Charles Evans Hughes Scholar. He served as a managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal and founded the Journal’s online content arm, which continues today. Byron was awarded the Fredric Weisberg Prize for Constitutional Law and secured a position under Professor Michael Dorf, one of the country’s foremost constitutional scholars, where he conducted research for a number of articles on constitutional topics. During Byron’s final year at Cornell, he spent six months in South Africa at the University of Cape Town studying corporate governance and the legal aspects of financing transactions under South Africa’s Companies Act.

In 2014, Byron joined the Boston office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (WilmerHale), where he represented companies in a variety of industries, including energy, financial services, mining, technology and retail. While at Wilmer, he also received an HBX CORe credential from Harvard Business School.

In 2016, Byron took a sabbatical from corporate practice to work at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. While there, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Mogoeng Mogoeng, the Chief Justice of South Africa, where he conducted research and drafting for cases involving a variety of topics, including administrative law, land rights and labor law. Byron regards his experiences here as being some of his most rewarding:

“Making the transition from doing deals to appellate legal analysis was difficult. However, I found the experience to be immensely satisfying. South Africa’s political and legal landscape has been tumultuous in recent years, and the Constitutional Court has been an incredibly important institution. It was an honor to contribute to its work. Also, from a professional development perspective, I learned a great deal from my experience. Justice Mogoeng is a principled jurist, a forthright communicator and a humble leader. Since returning to the corporate and securities field in 2017, I have strived to emulate those qualities. Equally important, working at the Court taught me to be resourceful (and flexible) when addressing new problems.”

After finishing at the Constitutional Court, he rejoined the corporate practice at WilmerHale. In September of 2017 he took a position as a Senior Research Fellow at the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation in Cambridge, MA, where he writes on policy issues relating to securities and banking regulation.

Throughout this journey, Byron has written regularly on a variety of legal and policy topics. His works have been featured in the Argus Leader and Capital Journal newspapers as well as the Cornell International Law Journal, the Cornell Daily Sun, the Minnesota Law Review Headnotes and the Suffolk Law Review Online. His most recent piece “Raising Additional Tier 1 Capital” was published by the Oxford University Press’ Capital Markets Law Journal in 2016. Byron’s next essay, relating to the legacy of South Africa’s former Deputy Chief Justice, will be published by the Virginia Journal of International Law Digest this winter.

On top of this all, Byron is still an active brother in the Zeta Psi community, and recounts how his experiences in the fraternity helped shape his personal and professional outlook:

“I transferred to Tufts from a small state school in western South Dakota. When I arrived in Medford, I knew no one. During my first semester I met the guys at Zeta and decided to join. It was a fantastic experience. I made a number of close friends and had more fun than I could have imagined. Being involved with the fraternity also presented some great opportunities for professional development. Serving as our chapter’s sergeant-at-arms, philanthropy chair, vice president and president helped build my leadership skills. Participating in the Washington Scholars program (where I had the privilege of interning for Michael Freiman at Morgan Stanley in DC) gave me my first exposure to the financial industry—an experience that later informed my decision to become a corporate and securities lawyer.

Since undergrad, being a Zete has continued to contribute to my personal and professional life. Some of my best friends are still Zetes, and serving on the Kappa Chapter’s elder board of directors is gratifying. More senior brothers from the legal community—from Tufts and elsewhere—have given me some excellent guidance on succeeding in the legal field.”