LDF President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill to Receive Harvard Law Award
Washington, D.C. – At a ceremony this evening at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), will receive an Award for Professional Excellence from Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession (CLS).
“As a litigator, a professor, an author, and now as the seventh President and Director-Counsel of LDF, Sherrilyn has devoted her life to making the promise of equal justice a reality in America,” said LDF Associate Director-Counsel Janai Nelson. “This award is a fitting recognition of her outstanding contributions to the legal profession, the Legal Defense Fund, and the United States.”
Ms. Ifill is being honored alongside American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Vernon Jordan, former President of the National Urban League and Senior Counsel at Akin Gump, LLP, is being honored with the Global Leadership Award.
“I am deeply humbled to receive this award alongside such distinguished fellow honorees,” said Ms. Ifill. “Harvard Law School is, of course, one of the preeminent centers of legal education and scholarship in the world, and to be recognized by its Center on the Legal Profession is a truly gratifying honor.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
