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Debo P. Adegbile is Associate Director-Counsel/Director of Litigation and is responsible for supervision of the legal program at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). Debo successfully argued against a constitutional challenge to the core federal preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act before a three-judge panel in federal court in Washington D.C., and again in April of 2009 before the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. One v. Holder, followed a multi-year effort which resulted in the Congressional reauthorization of several important provisions of the VRA.
Prior to joining LDF in 2001, Debo was a litigation associate at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison for seven years. At the firm Debo worked closely with Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. on the representation of Congressman Cleo Fields, to defend his Louisiana congressional district against an Equal Protection challenge in Hays v. Louisiana -- a case that was litigated in collaboration with LDF and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
Debo received a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1994; and a B.A. in Government from Connecticut College in 1991, where he was awarded the Anna Lord Strauss Medal given annually to the graduating senior who has rendered outstanding college and community service.