Lillian Johnson is an attorney and civil justice advocate in Arizona. [1] In 2011, Johnson was honored as an Obama White House Champion of Change. [2]
Johnson is on the board of directors of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. She is the Executive Director of Community Legal Services, the largest civil legal aid program in Arizona. [2]
Johnson graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1975 and took a staff attorney position at the Legal Assistance Foundation in Chicago. [3] Later she was the Assistant to the Regional Director in the 10-state Midwest office of the Legal Services Corporation. In 1982 she moved to Phoenix, Arizona to take the executive director position at Community Legal Service, the largest civil legal aid program in the state. [2]
Johnson grew up in Oklahoma. [2] After graduating from Howard University, she took a position as assistant dean at Middlebury College. [2] While attending law school she met Robert Wright, a community advocate, and they later married. [2]
In 2011, Johnson was honored as a White House Champion of Change. [2] In 2014, she received the William E. Morris Institute for Justice Hero Award for Access to Justice. In 1997, Johnson was awarded the Charles Dorsey Award by the National Legal Aid & Defender Association. [4]
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to advance consumer interests through research, education and advocacy.
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commonly referred to as the New York City Bar Association, founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization has been headquartered in a landmark building on 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. Today the City Bar has more than 23,000 members. Its current president, Susan J. Kohlmann, began her two-year term in May 2022.
The State Bar of Arizona is the integrated (mandatory) bar association of the U.S. state of Arizona. The Arizona Supreme Court licenses lawyers, while the State Bar administers the regulation of the practice of law. The State Bar, under the direction of the Court, establishes procedures for the discipline of lawyer misconduct and provides education and development programs for the legal profession and the public. Through the Rules of The Supreme Court of Arizona, the privilege to practice law in Arizona is granted solely to "active member[s] of the state bar."
The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law is the law school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is located in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. Created in 1965 as the Arizona State University College of Law upon recommendation of the Arizona Board of Regents, with the first classes held in the fall of 1967. The school has held American Bar Association accreditation since 1969 and is a member of the Order of the Coif. The school is also a member of the Association of American Law Schools. In 2006, the law school was renamed in honor of retired United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Paul K. Charlton is a former United States Attorney and current partner at the law firm of Dentons US LLP in the firm's Phoenix, Arizona office. Charlton concentrates his practice on high-profile and complex litigation, internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense. Charlton also represents a number of Arizona Native American governments, including Ak-Chin, Salt River Pima-Maricopa, Haulapai, the Navajo Nation, and Tohono O'odham.
Steptoe LLP formerly known as Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Brussels, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree was an African-American civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney. Her 1955 victory before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the first bus desegregation case to be brought before the ICC resulted in the only explicit repudiation of the "separate but equal" doctrine in the field of interstate bus transportation by a court or federal administrative body. That case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, which Dovey Roundtree brought before the ICC with her law partner and mentor Julius Winfield Robertson, was invoked by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during the 1961 Freedom Riders' campaign in his successful battle to compel the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce its rulings and end Jim Crow laws in public transportation.
Fennemore Craig, P.C. is a Mountain West regional law firm that offers clients legal services in both litigation and commercial transactions.
Rebecca White Berch is a former justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. On July 1, 2009, she began a five-year term as chief justice, a position to which she was elected by her peers on the court. As chief justice, she succeeded Ruth McGregor. She concluded her service as Arizona's chief justice in July 2014 when she passed the gavel to new Chief Justice Scott Bales. Berch had been a justice of the state's highest court since March 2002, when she was appointed to the court by Republican governor Jane Dee Hull. She retired in September 2015.
Michael D. Ryan was a justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, a position he had held 2002–2010. He was also a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Dennis K. Burke is a former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona.
Beth Robinson is an American lawyer and judge from Vermont. She is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and is the first openly lesbian judge to serve on any federal court of appeals. Robinson served as an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 2011 to 2021.
William Scott Bales is the former Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. He was appointed to the court in 2005 by Governor Janet Napolitano through Arizona's merit selection system. He was elected by his fellow justices as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, to replace Rebecca White Berch, effective June 27, 2014. Bales served as Arizona's chief justice until July 31, 2019.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.
The Central Virginia Legal Aid Society (CVLAS) is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal assistance in civil matters to low-income and elderly residents in central Virginia.
Martha Jane Bergmark is an attorney, civil rights advocate, and writer from Mississippi. Bergmark is best known for her work promoting civil justice through civil legal aid organizations at the local, state, and national level. Currently, Bergmark is executive director of Voices for Civil Justice.
Jean Emily Fairfax was an American educator, civil rights worker, community organizer, and philanthropist whose efforts have focused on achieving equity in education, especially for poor African Americans. She served as Director of Community Services of the NAACP from 1965 to 1984.
Sharon McGowan is an American lawyer and a partner at Katz Banks Kumin LLP, an employment and whistleblower firm based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining KBK, she was the legal director and chief strategy officer for Lambda Legal. McGowan was an Obama administration appointee in the role of Acting General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel for Policy at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. She also served as Principal Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice. In 2019, she was honored with the Stonewall Award, bestowed by the American Bar Association's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Kristen M. Clarke is an American attorney who has served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice since May 2021. Clarke previously served as president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She also managed the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's Office under Eric Schneiderman. In 2019, Clarke successfully represented Taylor Dumpson, the first African American woman student body president of American University, in her landmark case against white supremacists.
Allister Adel was an American attorney who served as the County Attorney for Maricopa County, Arizona, from 2019 to 2022. She was the first woman to hold the position. Originally appointed to the position, Adel subsequently won election to a full term in November 2020. However, she resigned in March 2022 amid controversies over her tenure and fitness for office, and died a month later.