NEWS

 

Biographies

John Payton

Mr. Payton has most recently been a partner at the Washington firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr. His practice there has ranged from complex commercial matters to the most challenging of civil rights matters. He was the lead counsel for the University of Michigan in successfully defending the use of race in the admissions process at its undergraduate college and at its law school. Mr. Payton handled these two high-profile cases in the trial court, in the court of appeals and argued Gratz v. Bollinger in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's decision represented the vindication of a strategy, devised and implemented over more than six years, to build a case to support the educational benefits of diversity.

In addition to the University of Michigan cases, he has extensive civil rights experience including defending the use of race-based measures to address continuing problems in our society. He represented Richmond in the Supreme Court in Richmond v. Croson and has filed numerous amicus briefs in the Supreme Court in other civil rights cases.

His civil practice has ranged from libel, to representing the American Legacy Foundation in its efforts to see that youth do not become smokers, to partnership matters, to employment matters.

From 1991 to 1994, Mr. Payton served as the Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia. He headed the firm's Litigation Department from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Payton served as president of the District of Columbia Bar from June 2001 to June 2002.

In 2007, he was reappointed as a member of American Bar Association's House of Delegates, having originally served as a House member from June 2000 to June 2002. He is also currently a member of the Council of the ABA's Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities and the ABA's Commission on Immigration Policy. Mr. Payton is on the Board of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and on the Board of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He has served as co-chair of each organization. He also serves on the Board of Global Rights. He is a past Vice Chair of the District of Columbia Public Defender Service.

Mr. Payton has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and at the Georgetown Law Center. During the spring of 2007, he taught a course on "The Constitution and Democracy" at Howard University Law School, and was named the James Nabrit, Jr. Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In addition, he is a Master in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court.

Mr. Payton is a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Law School.