2024 Honorees

Legal Aid DC was thrilled to present Debo P. Adegbile and Judge David S. Tatel with the Servant of Justice Award at the April 9, 2024 dinner in Washington. 

Judge Tatel, who rejoined Hogan Lovells as Senior Counsel this year, is a living legend of the law. His career spans nearly six decades in public interest law, government service, private practice, and almost 30 years on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, nearly all in staunch defense of civil liberties. He served as first Executive Director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which went on to recently celebrate a landmark 50 years of providing pro bono civil legal counsel, after which he became Director of the national Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In the early 1970s, he helped found the Legal Services Corporation, which promotes equal access to justice by providing grants for civil legal defense for low-income Americans. Judge Tatel also led the Office for Civil Rights under President Jimmy Carter, revitalizing that office at a critical time in American civil rights history. He later founded the Education practice at then-Hogan & Hartson, advancing desegregation in school districts in suburban St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and other cities throughout the country. In 1994, he was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the DC Circuit to succeed former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As a DC Circuit judge, he decided dozens of landmark cases, earning a reputation as one of the most brilliant and fair legal minds in the judiciary. He accomplished most of this after losing his eyesight at age 30. His memoir, “Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice,” will be published by Little, Brown on June 11, 2024.

Mr. Adegbile is a Partner at WilmerHale and Chair of the Anti-Discrimination practice. He previously worked at the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund from 2001 to 2014, including as Director of Litigation from 2007 to 2014 and Acting President & Director-Counsel from 2012 to 2013. He has argued several important civil rights cases at the Supreme Court and beyond – including successfully defending the Voting Rights Act before Judge Tatel on the DC Circuit, in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder. Mr. Adegbile also served as senior counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 2013-2014, advising on Supreme Court jurisprudence and the defense of civil rights, especially voting rights. In 2016, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, on which he served for six years. More recently, he led a WilmerHale team in a successful challenge to Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps. Among his many roles at WilmerHale, Mr. Adegbile conducts civil rights and equity audits for clients, imparting the wisdom and practice from his many years of upholding American civil liberties.