Yolanda Young (born October 31, 1968) [1] is an American journalist, author, and lecturer. [2] Her work as a writer focuses on law, politics, and culture. Young has addressed audiences at Harvard Law School [3] and the University of Arizona. [4] She was the keynote speaker for the 2011 National Black Pre-Law Conference. [5]
She is on the board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. [6]
Young's first book, On Our Way To Beautiful (Random House 2002) received favorable reviews from publications like The Chicago Tribune. [7] Young has also been included in the following anthologies: This I Believe II: More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women; [8] Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction; [9] and Memoir by Black Women; and The Black Body. [10]
Young's upcoming book, "Thurgood's Legacy: Black Lawyers Reflect on Law School, the Legal Profession, and Life," [11] is based on a series of articles written for On Being A Black Lawyer. [12]
Young contributes columns to USA TODAY. She also provides commentary for NPR, The Washington Post and other publications. Noteworthy pieces include "Bakke ruling exposes generational divide," [13] Stay Away From Your Man, Rihanna! [14] Mapp v. Ohio Turns 50: A Look at Warren Court's Rights of Defendants, [15] and It's Shreveport's Season. [16]
Young founded On Being A Black Lawyer (OBABL) in 2008 as a news and resource center for African American attorneys. [17] OBABL has been recognized by the American Bar Association. [18] In addition to its legal news blog, OBABL releases the following publications annually: The Power 100, which recognizes the most powerful black attorneys in the nation; [19] The Salute to the Congressional Black Caucus & the Nation's Top Lawyers Black Lawyers With Influence; [20] and The Black Student's Guide to Law Schools, which includes rankings of the top law schools for black students.
In 2008 Young wrote an exposé in The Huffington Post "Law Firm Segregation Reminiscent of Jim Crow." [21]
"[Law firm] Staff attorneys are non-partner track lawyers who handle the menial legal tasks--generating binders and attaching "relevant" or "not relevant" codes to thousands of emails, spreadsheets, and any other documents associated with a particular case—that associates shun. While paralegals have their own offices, as many as ten staff attorneys share windowless file rooms. Segregated from other lawyers in the firm, we go uninvited to attorney-only firm functions and are not provided jury duty or maternity leave. The base pay and bonus structure is half that of a 25 year old first year associate's."
Young would go on to file a lawsuit against the firm alleging discrimination and retaliation; however, a federal judge dismissed the case on summary judgement. [22]
Young was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. In her memoir, On Our Way To Beautiful, Young recounts how she and her family overcame many tragedies. According to Washingtonian Magazine, "The stories tell of a sometimes-troubled family--Young's father shot and wounded her mother, and an uncle is in prison--but a mostly loving one, thanks to the values imparted by Young's grandmother and great-grandmother." [23]
Young attended Howard University majoring in Accounting with a minor in Political Science. She is also a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. [23]
Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of School.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys. It was the first law firm in the world to reach US$4 billion in annual revenue.
The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students.
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American appellate lawyer and professor of law. He is a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm and is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center. During the Obama administration, Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. Previously, Katyal served as a lawyer in the Solicitor General's office and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is an American international law firm with approximately 2,200 legal professionals in 31 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mergers with other law firms stimulated global growth and led to a ranking of eighth on The American Lawyer's 2018 top 100 firms by gross revenue list. It is also the largest law firm chaired by a woman and represents "three-quarters of the Fortune 100 companies."
Dechert LLP is a multinational American law firm of more than 900 lawyers with practices in corporate and securities, complex litigation, finance and real estate, financial services, asset management, and private equity. In 2021, the firm raised revenues by 25%, with a total of $1.3 billion. On Law.com's 2022 Global 200 survey, Dechert ranked as the 41st highest grossing law firm in the world.
Northern Illinois University College of Law is one of four public law schools in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is one of two public law schools in the Chicago area. The College of Law was founded as the Lewis University College of Law in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in 1975. It became part of Northern Illinois University in August 1979, and in 1982 moved to the DeKalb, Illinois, campus, taking up residence in Swen Parson Hall, the former NIU main library. The College of Law offers the Juris Doctor degree.
Paul March Smith is an American attorney who has argued many important cases, most notably Lawrence v. Texas and has argued 21 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. In January 2017, he joined the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center, and also the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., as Vice President of Litigation and Strategy. Until 2017, he was a partner at Jenner & Block's Washington, D.C., office where he served as co-chair of the firm's Election Law and Redistricting practice.
Thurgood Marshall Jr. is an American lawyer and son of the late United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Marshall worked in the Bill Clinton White House and is a retired international law firm partner. He also served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation.
OnRamp Systems is a legal technology company that specializes in applying people, process, and technology in support of corporate legal departments. OnRamp System’s collaborative platform, Legal OnRamp, has been cited by Harvard Law School as one of the first to combine law and technology.
Howard University School of Law is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the oldest historically black law school in the United States.
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.
Elliott I. Portnoy is an American attorney and the Global chief executive officer of Dentons—a law firm that launched March 28, 2013 with the combination of US/UKMEA firm SNR Denton, Canada's Fraser Milner Casgrain and France's Salans. Dentons is now the largest law firm in the world.
Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington, DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan & Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. As of 2022, the firm employed about 2,500 lawyers, making it the sixth largest law firm in the world.
Irvin Bertram Nathan is an American lawyer from Washington, DC. He served as the attorney general of the District of Columbia from 2011 to 2015. He was appointed in 2011 by Mayor Vincent C. Gray. He previously served as the general counsel of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. Nathan announced his resignation the day after the November 2014 election, in which voters chose Karl Racine as the first elected attorney general of D.C.
Justin Hansford is a Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law and the founder and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. He was nominated by the United States to serve as a founding member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD). Hansford was previously a democracy project fellow at Harvard University, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and an associate professor of law at the Saint Louis University School of Law.
Harry P. Litman is an American lawyer, law professor and political commentator. He is a former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He has provided commentary in print and broadcast news and produces the Talking Feds podcast. He has taught in multiple law schools and schools of public policy.
Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably Christine Blasey Ford, Charlotte Bennett, Vanessa Tyson, Chloe Caras, and accusers of Congressmen Pat Meehan and Eric Massa, and whistleblowers facing retaliation, including most recently Dr. Rick Bright. Katz's primary practice areas at her firm are employment and whistleblower law, where she represents victims of workplace discrimination and retaliation.
Laura Coates is an American attorney. She has formerly served as a trial attorney for the law firms Faegre & Benson and Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, and a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Since 2016, she has served as an analyst for CNN, and became the network's chief legal analyst in 2023.
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.
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