Eric Holder Named to LDF’s National Board

WASHINGTON — Covington partner and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was named to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s (LDF) National Board of Directors.

Mr. Holder recently received LDF’s highest honor, the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award, named for its founder and the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Mr. Holder's association with LDF goes back to 1974, when he served as a legal intern during the summer after his first year at Columbia Law School.

Regarding Mr. Holder’s decision to join the board, Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF’s current president and director-counsel, said: “I have been unequivocal in my admiration for Mr. Holder’s leadership. He presided over the restoration of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, launched the groundbreaking criminal justice reforms of President Obama, and confronted the challenges in Ferguson, Missouri with tremendous sensitivity during a volatile time in our nation.”

Founded in 1940, LDF was the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization and has functioned separately from the NAACP since 1957, although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.