15 Facts About Sherrilyn Ifill

Sherrilyn Ifill was born on December 17,1962 and is an American lawyer.

Sherrilyn Ifill is a law professor and former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Sherrilyn Ifill was the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since Thurgood Marshall founded the organization in 1940.

Sherrilyn Ifill was born on December 17,1962, in Baltimore, Maryland to Lester and Myrtle.

Sherrilyn Ifill's mother passed away when Ifill was 6 years old.

Sherrilyn Ifill's first job out of law school was a one-year fellowship with the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Sherrilyn Ifill then served as assistant counsel at the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, litigating Voting Rights Act cases including the landmark Houston Lawyers' Association v Attorney General of Texas.

Sherrilyn Ifill 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 for Nonfiction.

Sherrilyn Ifill regularly appears in the media for her expertise on topics like affirmative action, policing, judicial nominees, and the Supreme Court.

Sherrilyn 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.

Sherrilyn Ifill joined the Ford Foundation as a Senior Fellow in June 2022.

Sherrilyn Ifill's writing appears in The New York Review of Books, Salon, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

In 2016, Sherrilyn Ifill won the Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award.

Sherrilyn Ifill was an American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow in 2019.

Sherrilyn Ifill was selected as the New York State Bar Association 2023 Gold Medal Award recipient, which cited her history as a "tireless warrior for civil rights".