Sherrilyn Ifill (born December 17, 1962) is an American lawyer and the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

. She is a law professor and former president and director-counsel of the

NAACP Legal Defense Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...

. She was the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African- ...

founded the organization in 1940. Ifill is a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection. In 2021, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual ''Time'' 100 list.

Early life and education

Sherrilyn Ifill was born on December 17, 1962, in Baltimore, Maryland to Lester and Myrtle. She is the youngest of 10 children. Her mother passed away when she was 6 years old. She graduated from Hillcrest High School. Ifill has a B.A. from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely fol ...

and a J.D. from

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in Ne ...

. She and the late ''

PBS NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...

'' anchor

Gwen Ifill Gwendolyn L. Ifill ( ; September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016) was an American journalist, television newscaster, and author. In 1999, she became the first African-American woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program ...

were first cousins. Their family immigrated to the U.S. from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

, with Sherrilyn's and Gwen's fathers, who were brothers, both becoming

African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

ministers.

Career

While in law school, Ifill interned for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. the first summer and at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Centre for Human Rights the second summer. Her first job out of law school was a one-year fellowship with the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". ...

in New York. She then served as assistant counsel at the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, litigating

Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...

cases including the landmark ''Houston Lawyers' Association v. Attorney General of Texas''. In 1993, she joined the faculty of the

University of Maryland Law School The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland L ...

, where she taught for two decades. She is the author of ''On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century'', a 2008 finalist for the

Hurston-Wright Legacy Award The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program honors Black writers in the United States and around the globe for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organizatio ...

for Nonfiction. In 2013, she became the Legal Defense Fund's president and director-counsel. Ifill regularly appears in the media for her expertise on topics like affirmative action, policing, judicial nominees, and the Supreme Court. Ifill has announced that she will step down from the role of president and director-counsel in the spring of 2022, to be replaced by Janai Nelson, currently the associate director-counsel at LDF. She joined the Ford Foundation as a Senior Fellow in June 2022. Her writing appears in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'', ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In June 2023, Ifill was appointed

Howard Law School Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) 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 o ...

's inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights and will launch the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy.

Personal life

Ifill is married to Ivo Knobloch. They have three children.

Honors and awards

In 2016, Ifill won the Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award. Ifill was an American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow in 2019. In 2020, ''Glamour'' magazine gave her a Woman of the Year award, calling her a "civil rights superhero." In 2021, Ifill was included on the ''Time'' 100, ''

''s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was selected as the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

2023 Gold Medal Award recipient, which cited her history as a "tireless warrior for civil rights"."NYSBA Selects Prominent Civil Rights Attorney Sherrilyn Ifill for Association’s Highest Honor"
David Alexander, New York State Bar Association. January 6, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2023.

References

External links

Sherrilyn Ifill
at

NAACP LDF The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...