Sherrilyn Ifill of NAACP Legal Defense Fund Receives Honorary Degree from Fordham Law

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the nation’s premier civil rights legal organization, served as the graduation speaker and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Fordham Law School’s 111th diploma ceremony, on Tuesday, May 22.

Dean Matthew Diller and Fordham University President Joseph M. McShane conferred degrees on 560 graduates—371 receiving J.D. degrees, 164 receiving LL.M. degrees, 22 receiving M.S.L. degrees, and 3 receiving S.J.D. degrees.

Professor Ian Weinstein was honored with the Teacher of the Year award. Weinstein joined the Fordham Law faculty in 1991 and has supervised in the Federal Litigation Clinic, Federal Administrative Law Clinic, Criminal Defense Clinic, and Appellate Litigation Clinic. He has also taught Criminal Law, Evidence, Fundamental Lawyering Skills, Trial Advocacy, and Administrative Law. In 2009, he became associate dean for clinical and experiential programs, a position he held for seven years.

Alumnus Nicholas Haddad ’07 received the Adjunct Teacher of the Year award. He teaches Legal Writing at Fordham Law. He also works as a senior legal editor with Practical Law’s litigation service. He previously worked in the New York office of Jones Day. Before joining Jones Day, he clerked for the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Before that, he was a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Graduating student Khasim Kepler Lockhart received the Eugene J. Keefe Award, presented by the Student Bar Association to the person that has made the most important contribution to the Fordham community. Lockhart serves as president of the Black Law Students Association. For his BLSA leadership he has won two awards: the association’s Student of the Year award and the Chapter President of the Year award from the Northeast Black Law Students Association. He also participated in moot court, serving as an associate editor for the 2017 William Hughes Mulligan Memorial Competition, and worked with the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal, serving as associate editor.