Washington—Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law announced new members joining its Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Among the new additions is Dean Danielle R. Holley, of the Howard University School of Law, who was elected to serve as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors.
The appointments expand the Lawyers’ Committee Board of Directors to over 218 members, hailing from the nation’s leading private law firms, corporations, and academic institutions. These Board members serve in an engaged advisory capacity, participating on various committees, expanding the organization’s network and supporters, and often engaging in pro bono legal work themselves. The Executive Committee, the organization’s governing body, now stands at 20 members.
“I am excited to welcome this new class of leadership to the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. Their insights, experience and commitment to the work of advancing civil rights across the country will be invaluable to our organization and the people and communities we serve,” said Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The new additions to the Executive Committee are listed below:
- Danielle R. Holley, who will serve as Board Co-Chair, is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law, where she is a scholar of education law and civil rights, and an expert on diversity in the legal profession and higher education. She has served as dean of the law school since 2014. Prior to joining Howard, Dean Holley served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina and also worked in private practice.
- Roscoe Jones, Jr., who will serve as Board Secretary, is a Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, in Washington, D.C., where he advises clients on public policy issues. Before joining the firm, Roscoe served in various high-level roles on Capitol Hill, where he advised on the confirmation of three U.S. Supreme Court Justices and three Attorney Generals, as well as on several civil rights bills enacted into law. In addition, he teaches a criminal justice reform policy course at the Yale and University of Chicago Law Schools.
- Kim M. Boyle is a partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP in New Orleans, LA, where she practices in the areas of labor and employment, civil rights, constitutional law, commercial, tort and general litigation. She is the past President of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the New Orleans Bar Association and is currently on the Board of Trustees for Tulane University and Board of Trustees for Dillard University.
- Harold E. Franklin, Jr. is a partner in King & Spalding’s Trial and Global Disputes Practice Group, specializing in defending corporations in complex high-stakes litigation and trials, as well as serves as the firm’s Diversity Chair. Harold is a past President of both the Atlanta Bar Association (the largest voluntary bar association in the Southeast United States) and the Gate City Bar Association. A recognized leader, Harold has engaged heavily in and led pro bono (including Georgia Election Protection) and community service endeavors in both the legal profession and broader community.
- Lillian S. Hardy is a partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP, in Washington, D.C., where she heads the firm’s multidisciplinary, global crisis management practice. She was recognized as one of Global Investigations Review’s 40 under 40 and as a D.C. Rising Star by The National Law Journal.
- Wendolyn Wrosch Richards his a principal and pro bono counsel at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C., in Detroit, MI, which has garnered national recognition for taking on high-profile, high-impact cases and was shortlisted as one of the nation’s best pro bono programs in 2020 by the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards: North America. She is also a principal at the firm and an accomplished litigator whose practice focuses on election law and complex commercial matters.
- Neil A. Steiner is a partner at Dechert LLP in New York. He has extensive experience representing private equity funds, hedge funds, investment advisers, corporations and their senior executives in white collar defense matters. Neil has been involved in a significant number of cases challenging restrictive voting rights practices, including in Ohio, Georgia, Kansas, Texas, New York, and Wisconsin, and received the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award in 2020 and the Second Circuit Federal Bar Council’s Thurgood Marshall Award in 2021 for his voting rights work.
The new additions to the Advisory Board of Directors are listed below:
- Roger A. Fairfax, Jr. is the Dean of American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.
- Corrine A. Irish is a partner at Squire Patton Boggs, in New York, and also serves as Director of Pro Bono for the firm.
- Katherine Milgram is the Chief Regulatory Counsel at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America in New York.
- Gera Peoples is the Vice President & Chief Litigation Counsel at NextEra Energy Resources in North Palm Beach, FL.
- Lola Velazquez-Aguilu is lead counsel for Medtronic’s Brain Modulation business and is based in Minneapolis, MN
- Tamera Woodard is the Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Supply Chain and Contracts + Transactions Center of Expertise at AT&T in Atlanta, GA.
To learn more about the Executive Committee and our Board visit our website.
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org
