Damon Todd Hewitt recently re-joined LDF following a leave during which he served as Executive Director of the New York Police-on-Police Shootings Task Force -- an entity created to address the implications arising from the deaths of two off-duty African-American police officers who were shot by fellow officers after being mistaken for criminal suspects.
Damon initially joined LDF's New York office as a Skadden Fellow in October 2001. He is now Director of the Education Practice, and formerly served as Director of the Katrina (Gulf Coast) Project. In that capacity Mr. Hewitt worked on assignment in New Orleans to facilitate LDF's post-Hurricane Katrina litigation and advocacy, including Wallace v. Blanco (the first post-Katrina federal voting rights lawsuit) and Boisseau v. Picard (a suit challenging the denial of education to displaced children in New Orleans).
In his years at LDF, Mr. Hewitt has worked on matters including voting rights, educational adequacy, juvenile justice, school desegregation, and the School-to-Prison pipeline. Mr. Hewitt has appeared before numerous state and federal courts throughout the country, negotiated settlement agreements, enforced and monitored compliance with court orders, and represented clients in successful mediation. Prior to joining LDF, Mr. Hewitt served as a law clerk to the Honorable Eric L. Clay of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where he was President of the campus N.A.A.C.P. chapter, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a Public Interest Scholar, Comment Editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law, and recipient of the Henry Meacham Public Service Award.