The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City.
Jack Greenberg was an American attorney and legal scholar. He was the Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1961 to 1984, succeeding Thurgood Marshall.
James Earl Graves Jr. is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Cheryl D. Mills is an American lawyer and corporate executive. She first came into public prominence while serving as deputy White House Counsel for President Bill Clinton, whom she defended during his 1999 impeachment trial. She has worked for New York University as Senior Vice President, served as Senior Adviser and Counsel for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and is considered a member of Hillary Clinton's group of core advisers, self-designated as "Hillaryland". She served as Counselor and Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton during her whole tenure as United States Secretary of State. After leaving the State Department in January, 2013, she founded BlackIvy Group, which builds businesses in Africa.
Norma V. Cantú is an American civil rights lawyer and educator. Since 2021, she has served as chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the first Latina to hold the position.
John David Trasviña is a human rights attorney. He is the former dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law. Previous to that, he was assistant secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and special counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices at the U.S. Department of Justice. He was named principal legal advisor at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January 2021.
Teresa Wynn Roseborough is an American lawyer, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Clinton administration and is the executive vice president and general counsel at The Home Depot. She used to be Deputy General Counsel at MetLife, where she at one point led a department of 62 associates and supervised MetLife's litigation activities worldwide.
John A. Payton was an African-American civil rights attorney. In 2008, he was appointed the sixth president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund serving in that post until his death. Prior to this, he was a partner at the law firm WilmerHale for 20 years.
Beth Nolan is a vice president and general counsel of the George Washington University. She was Bill Clinton's final White House Counsel, as well as the first woman to hold the office. Prior to serving as White House Counicil, Nolan worked in other White House and Department of Justice positions, taught law, and worked in private practice.
Melody C. Barnes is an American lawyer and political advisor. Formerly an aide and chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barnes later worked at the Center for American Progress, a think tank, before joining Senator Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. After Obama took office as president, Barnes was appointed director of the Domestic Policy Council, serving in that post from January 2009 to January 2012. After leaving the White House, Barnes assumed roles at the Aspen Institute and New York University. Since 2016, she has been at the University of Virginia, where she teaches law and is the Co-Director of the UVA Democracy Initiative.
Elizabeth Merrill "Lisa" Brown is an American lawyer who served as the first White House Staff Secretary in the Obama White House, assuming that post on January 20, 2009. She is also the current General Counsel at the United States Department of Education. Earlier, during the 2008-2009 presidential transition, she served as Co-Chair of Agency Review. Prior to joining the Obama-Biden Transition Team, she served as Executive Director of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization.
Vanita Gupta is the United States Associate Attorney General, serving since April 22, 2021. Gupta served as the president and chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and as the head of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she was the chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States from 2014 to 2017.
Jeffrey Laurence Bleich is an American lawyer and diplomat from California.
Chai Rachel Feldblum is an American author and activist for disability and LGBT rights. A former law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, she served as Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was nominated to the position on the EEOC by president Barack Obama in 2009. In April 2010, she received a recess appointment to the EEOC, and in December 2010 she was confirmed to serve on the EEOC by the United States Senate. The Senate confirmed her in December 2013 for a second term on the Commission which expired in July 2018.
Patricia Ann Shiu is the former Director of Federal Contract Compliance from 2009 to December 1, 2016 during the administration of Barack Obama. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Shiu worked as Vice President for Programs at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center in San Francisco. She worked there for 26 years. Shiu also worked as an associate at the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro.
Stephanie J. Jones is a lawyer, writer and former senior government official, and is President of The Call to Justice Foundation. She was the federal government's first Chief Opportunities Officer and is the former Editor-in-Chief of The State of Black America.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón is a Dominican-American attorney and diplomat who is the United States Ambassador to Spain. Most recently, she was the chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden. She formerly served as a litigation and international arbitration partner with the international law firm Winston & Strawn LLP. She was previously a partner with Chadbourne & Parke LLP, practicing in the firm's International Arbitration and Latin America groups. Reynoso is also affiliated with the faculty at Columbia University School of Law and the School of International and Public Affairs. From March 2012 until December 2014, she served as United States ambassador to Uruguay. She is a former deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the United States Department of State. President Biden nominated her to be the next United States Ambassador to Spain on July 27, 2021, being confirmed on December 18, 2021.
Wilma B. Liebman is an American lawyer and civil servant who is best known for serving as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). She was designated Chair of the Board by President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, becoming only the second woman to lead the NLRB.
Phyllis W. Cheng is an American lawyer providing mediation, investigation and expert witness services in Los Angeles, California. She retired as a partner from DLA Piper LLP (US), a global law firm, where she practiced employment law representing businesses. Before that, Cheng served for nearly seven years as director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the largest state civil rights agency in the country.
Jacqueline Ann Berrien, often known as Jackie Berrien, was an American civil rights attorney and government official. From 2009 to 2014, Berrien served as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under President Barack Obama. Prior to this, Berrien had served as Associate Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
