Steering Change

Richard Snyder, at age 85, walked across the stage at the 2024 BAC commencement, shaking President Mahesh Daas' hand and pausing to accept an honorary doctorate in design leadership from the school he'd served for a dozen years.

Richard, Of Counsel at the law firm of Duane Morris LLP, specializes in corporate and international law, and previously worked as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

But he didn’t choose to reflect on his most prominent cases. Instead, Richard, who is outspoken and best known for his sharp wit and punchline laugh, leaned intently across the podium and, after congratulating the Class of 2024, offered practical life advice:

"Don't let your profession limit you. When you see letters after your name like AIA or some other designation, don't just see yourself as the architect on the job or a person fulfilling a limiting role for which you were trained."

He urged the fresh graduates to take in the complete architectural blueprint of their lives and to never stop learning or giving back to their communities.

"Using the superb education you have as a bedrock for moving forward and seeing yourself as a leader," Richard said.

A few weeks later, over coffee in the Duane Morris boardroom in a downtown Boston high-rise, Richard shared: "I thought long and hard about my message at graduation. I didn't just want it to be the usual 'follow your passion' call to action."

After all, it took him some time to find his own passion too.

Richard’s self-described "undistinguished" high school career in Newton, Massachusetts, was followed by a degree in accounting at Babson College and a stint at an accounting firm that he "just hated."

After a career aptitude test pointed him toward a legal career, Richard pivoted with the help of a full-ride scholarship to Boston University School of Law, where he graduated second in his class in 1963. However, it took him the first few years of his career to find a passion for the law and the right niche.

"I share that to point out to BAC students that a lack of success at any point in your career is not a death knell," Richard explained. "It's all about finding and pursuing something that interests you more."

Ultimately, Richard went on to have a remarkable career representing banks and high-net-worth individuals from all sectors and serving as legal counsel to entities of all sizes, from major corporations to mission-driven nonprofit organizations.

He set out to serve in government at federal, state, and local levels and achieved that aim through a formative summer internship at the White House, serving the US Department of Justice as a senior trial attorney in the fraud division, and later as Chairman of the state’s Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications and Chair of the Nahant Planning Board.

Richard, as a young Jewish man, directly experienced antisemitism growing up in an era where Jews were excluded from joining elite country clubs or governing boards. Boston's Brahmin institutions were accessed by invitation only. You had to know someone to become a member or part of the leadership. "That tended to make them not terribly diverse or interesting," Richard quipped.

He made it his goal to diversify schools, nonprofits, companies, and state agencies from the inside out.

"I joined boards before diversity, equity, and inclusion was an expression—in times when women were still commonly excluded," Richard said. "I pushed institutions to diversify because I knew that having more diverse voices represented would be the only way for them to succeed."

In some cases, he's faced resistance, a circumstance Richard has learned to respond to with humor in both his career and personal life. "Adversity is like a cork in a bottle of wine. The harder somebody pushes you down, the harder you pop back up," he assured.

Richard has served on boards at numerous nonprofits, cultural and educational institutions and community organizations. These include Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, the New England Council, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, WBUR public radio, Cambridge College, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and The Sunday School, Inc.

He’s also proudly served as Chair of the Babson board, currently sits on the school's Global Advisory Board. In fact, it was through a Babson connection that Richard first came to know and serve the BAC as well.

He's watched as the BAC has diversified and strengthened its board and student body.

"Mahesh Daas is a wonderful leader, and when he was instated as President of the BAC, he drew people to the board who wanted to be part of a rapidly evolving design institution and share our mission," Richard said.

The results are more than a moonshot—they are demonstrable.

Richard said, "When I looked out at the Class of 2024 from the stage at Commencement, I saw not only a deeply diverse group of professionals but also many people who are graduating because of the ability the BAC offered them to take courses online or at night and who were able to afford their degree by working along the way."

Although his term as a trustee has now concluded, Richard’s connection to the BAC remains strong as a Trustee Emeritus and his work with the BAC will continue to make a lasting impact. Encouraging others to join in giving in time and contributing to the 2025 BAC Capital Campaign he said, “These students and future generations of students deserve our mentoring, and the college deserves our financial support.”