Legal Aid Society of Washington Honors Vernon Jordan
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(Washington, D.C.) – The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia has honored Vernon E. Jordan Jr., senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington, with the 2010 Servant of Justice Award. The award was presented on April 27 at the Society’s 21st Annual Servant of Justice Awards dinner at the J.W. Marriott in Washington.
The Servant of Justice Award is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated “faithful dedication and remarkable achievement in ensuring that all persons have equal and meaningful access to justice in the District of Columbia.”
Mr. Jordan joined Akin Gump in 1982 after having served for a decade as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, Inc. He previously served as executive director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; attorney-consultant at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; assistant to the executive director of the Southern Regional Council; and Georgia field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He began his legal career as a law clerk to civil rights activist Donald Hollowell.
In 2001, the NAACP presented Mr. Jordan with its highest honor, the Joel E. Spingarn Medal. More recently, the National Law Journal named him in 2008 among the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.
A graduate of DePauw University and the Howard University Law School, Mr. Jordan holds honorary degrees from more than 50 U.S. colleges and universities. He is the author of Vernon Can Read! A Memoir (Public Affairs, 2001) and Make it Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out (Public Affairs, 2008).
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a leading international law firm, numbers more than 800 lawyers in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
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