Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
Date | Event |
---|---|
1946, Dec. 27 | Los Angeles, Calif. |
1973 | B.A., literature, Pomona College, Claremont, Calif. |
1973-1974 | Awarded Thomas J. Watson fellowship to study West African literature |
1977 | J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass. |
1977-1978 | Clerk for Cecil F. Poole, judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California |
1978-2008 | Member and later partner, Wilmer, Cutler, and Pickering law firm, Washington, D.C., later WilmerHale; leave of absence, 1991-1994; headed the litigation department, 1998-2000 |
1979 | Admitted to bar, U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia |
1982 | Admitted to bar, U.S. Supreme Court Served as one of the attorneys for the petitioners in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., a boycott case from Mississippi |
1988 | Argued City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., a case involving a minority set-aside program, before the U.S. Supreme Court |
1991 | Marriage to Gay J. McDougall |
1991-1994 | Corporation counsel, District of Columbia |
1993 | Nominated by President Bill Clinton to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as assistant attorney general; withdrew |
1994 | Member of election observation team, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Southern Africa Project, monitoring elections in South Africa |
1998-2003 | Lead counsel for University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, cases involving admission policies Argued Gratz v. Bollinger before the U.S. Supreme Court |
2008-2012 | President and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund |
2010 | Lead counsel for African-American firefighters in Lewis v. City of Chicago, winning the right for the firefighters to sue for discrimination |
2012, Mar. 22 | Died, Baltimore, Md. |