Sherrilyn Ifill
*Sherrilyn Ifill, born on this date in 1962, is a Black lawyer, author, and non-profit administrator.
From New York City, her family immigrated to the U.S. from Barbados; she is the cousin to former PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, with fathers who were brothers, both becoming African Methodist Episcopal ministers. Ifill received her B.A. degree from Vassar College and her J.D. degree from New York University School of Law.
Ifill had served as assistant counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, litigating Voting Rights Act cases, including the landmark Houston Lawyers' Association v. Attorney General of Texas. Her first job out of law school was a one-year fellowship with the ACLU in New York. In 1993, she joined the University of Maryland Law School faculty, 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 for Nonfiction.
In 2016, Ifill won the Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award. She is a law professor, president, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) director-counsel—the seventh president of the LDF. Ifill is also a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection. She regularly appears in the media for her expertise on affirmative action, policing, judicial nominees, and the Supreme Court.
