Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal to receive Wiley A. Branton Award from Washington Lawyers' Committee
Washington D.C., 7 June 2021 – Global law firm Hogan Lovells is pleased to announce that partner and Co-Head of our Appellate practice Neal Katyal will receive the Wiley A. Branton Award from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee in a virtual ceremony to be held on 16 June.
Katyal, a former Acting Solicitor General under the administration of President Barack Obama, has argued more cases at the United States Supreme Court than any other minority lawyer in history, breaking the record previously held by Thurgood Marshall. This award is bestowed annually upon a member of the legal community whose career embodies “a deep and abiding commitment to civil rights and economic justice advocacy.”
The award is named after Wiley Austin Branton, a prominent attorney, noted civil rights activist, and advocate of voting rights for all Americans. As a civil rights lawyer he filed suit against the Little Rock School Board in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court as Cooper v. Aaron, effectively ending segregation in the United States. He also served as executive secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Council on Equal Opportunity, and was Dean of Howard University Law School from 1978 until his retirement in 1983. Wiley Branton passed in 1988.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee partners with community members and organizations to combat discrimination based on race, gender, disability, family size, history of criminal conviction, and more. More about the organization can be found here.