Press Release

Kirkland & Ellis LLP Litigator Appointed Co-Chair of Prominent Civil Rights Legal Group

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is pleased to announce that Marjorie Press Lindblom, a litigator and partner in the Firm's New York office, has been elected as co-chair of the Board of Directors for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, for a two-year term beginning in September 2004.  The appointment will be made official at the Lawyers' Committee's A. Leon Higginbottom Corporate Leadership Awards Dinner today in New York City.
 
Along with current co-chair John Skilton of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, Lindblom will be responsible for leading the national organization's Board of Directors in the Lawyers' Committee's efforts in voting rights, education and employment discrimination, and environmental justice.  Lindblom will succeed current co-chair D. Stuart Meiklejohn of Sullivan & Cromwell.
 
The Lawyers' Committee's 75-member Board of Directors includes partners at prominent law firms, corporate counsel, law school deans, and private practitioners.  Through its national office and eight local independent committees, the Lawyers' Committee constitutes the largest civil rights legal organization in the U.S.
 

Founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy, the non-partisan Lawyers' Committee was composed of 250 of America's most prominent lawyers who were enlisted to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination and to help resolve the civil rights crisis that gripped the nation at that time.  Former Kirkland senior partner Les Hodson was present at the first meeting with President Kennedy at the White House on June 21, 1963.

Today, the Lawyers' Committee continues to represent Americans with pressing claims in the areas of voting, employment, housing and community development, environmental justice, and education.  The Lawyers' Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy advocacy, and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights.

"I am deeply honored to be asked to co-chair the leading civil rights legal organization in the country," Lindblom said.  "I look forward to working with the talented individuals that make this organization great, and to continue to shape civil rights advocacy in the United States."

Lindblom served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1989-94, and as Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee from 1993-94, before moving to Kirkland's New York office.  She has been a member of the Board of Trustees for the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since 2001, and served as the Chair of the Investment Committee from 2002 to present.

After graduating with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, Lindblom joined Kirkland in 1978 and then became a partner in 1984.  During her career with Kirkland , she has served as lead counsel in a variety of commercial litigation and counseling matters for diverse clients of the Firm.

Lindblom's appointment as co-chair of the Lawyers' Committee's Board of Directors highlights the influence and visibility of Kirkland's New York office, which opened with 12 lawyers in 1990 and has grown to nearly 200 attorneys.

For more information on the Lawyers' Committee, visit http://www.lawyerscomm.org.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an approximately 1,000-attorney law firm representing global clients in complex corporate, restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy, litigation and intellectual property matters.  The Firm has offices in New York, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. 

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