National LGBT Bar Association Bestows It's Highest Honor

 Los Angeles — Jon Davidson, Legal Director for Lambda Legal, has been named the recipient of the National LGBT Bar Association's 2010 Dan Bradley Award. The award is the Association's highest honor, awarded to recognize outstanding members of the LGBT legal community whose work has led the way in our struggle for equality under the law.

Davidson joined the staff of Lambda Legal in 1995 and has been a full-time advocate for LGBT rights for more than two decades. He has won legal victories ranging from protecting the rights of LGBT students, to gaining the freedom to marry and defending domestic partnership laws, to helping secure asylum for LGBT people persecuted in their home countries, to stopping HIV-related discrimination. Davidson was the co-drafter of AB 205, California's comprehensive domestic partners law, and also helped reform antigay practices of the Los Angeles Police Department.

"Jon Davidson is a brilliant lawyer who has been part of more victories in the battle for LGBT rights than most people can count," said Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal Executive Director. "He is a respected leader and strategist—over two decades, his work has helped shape the legal landscape for the LGBT and HIV communities. We all owe him an immense debt of gratitude, and we're thrilled that the National LGBT Bar Association has recognized his decades of hard work."

Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Davidson was head of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Project of the ACLU of Southern California and a partner at the firm of Irell & Manella. He has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Southern California Law Center, Loyola Law School, Whittier Law School and the UCLA School of Law. He is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School.

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Contact: Jason Pérez Howe, 213-382-7600, ext. 247; jhowe@lambdalegal.org

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.