2017
Vanita Gupta
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Donald B. Verrilli, Jr.
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
2016
Marian Wright Edelman
Children’s Defense Fund
Thomas S. Williamson, Jr.
Covington & Burling LLP
2015
Wade Henderson
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Philip W. Horton
Arnold & Porter LLP
2014
Barbara McDowell, posthumously
Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
Donald P. Salzman
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
2013
John Payton, Posthumously
NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
Paul M. Smith
Jenner & Block LLP
2012
Susan M. Hoffman
Crowell & Moring LLP
James vanR. Springer
Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
2011
Brooksley E. Born
Arnold & Porter LLP
Thomas E. Perez
Civil Rights Division of the
United States Department of Justice
2010
Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP
Florence Wagman Roisman
Indiana School of Law – Indianapolis
2009
Anthony Herman
Covington & Burling LLP
Dean Kurt L. Schmoke
Howard University School of Law
2008
Richard L. Roe
Georgetown University Law Center
Seth P. Waxman
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP
2007
E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.
Hogan & Hartson
Sidney White Rhyne
2006
Theodore A. Howard
Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP
David A Reiser
Zuckerman Spaeder LLP
2005
Katherine S. Broderick
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke School of Law
Andrew H. Marks
Crowell & Moring LLP
2004
Lois G. Williams
R. Sargent Shriver
E. Clinton Bamberger, Jr.
Edgar S. Cahn
Jean Camper Cahn, posthumously
2003
Peter J. Nickles
Covington & Burling
The Public Defender Service
for the District of Columbia
2002
Samuel F. Harahan
Council for Court Excellence
Douglas G. Robinson
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
2001
Lynn E. Cunningham
George Washington University Law School
John E. Nolan
Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Charles F.C. Ruff, posthumously
Covington & Burling
2000
Patty Mullahy Fugere
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Robert N. Weiner
Arnold & Porter LLP
1999
Blossom Athey
Covington & Burling
Eldon H. Crowell
Crowell & Moring LLP
1998
Eric H. Holder, Jr.
United States Department of Justice
Francine Salzman Temko
The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
1997
Peter B. Edelman
Georgetown University Law Center
Timothy J. May
Patton Boggs LLP
1996
R. Kenneth Mundy
Robert L. Weinberg
Williams & Connolly LLP
1995
Willie E. Cook, Jr.
Neighborhood Legal Services Program
David B. Isbell
Covington & Burling
1994
Charles T. Duncan
Reid and Priest
Stephen J. Pollak
Shea & Gardner
Janet Reno
Attorney General of the United States
1993
Justice Thurgood Marshall, posthumously
Supreme Court of the United States
Zona F. Hostetler
O’Toole, Rothwell, Nassau & Steinbach
John H. Pickering
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
1992
Howard C. Westwood
Covington & Burling
D.C. Legal Service Providers
1991
Augustus L. Palmer
Howard University
Barbara M. Rossotti
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
1990
Earl W. Kintner
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Charles A. Horsky
Covington & Burling
