Deborah Archer | |
|---|---|
 Deborah Archer at theSXSW London, 2025 | |
| President of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union | |
| Assumed office February 1, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Susan Herman |
| Personal details | |
| Spouse | Richard Buery |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Smith College (BA) Yale University (JD) |
Deborah N. Archer is an American civil rights lawyer and law professor. She is Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Clinical Law atNew York University School of Law. She also directs and founded theCommunity Equity Initiative at NYU Law and directs the Law School's Civil Rights Clinic. In January 2021, she was elected president of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union, becoming the first African American to hold the position in the organization’s history.
The daughter of immigrants fromJamaica, Archer was raised inWindsor, Connecticut.[1][2] She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government fromSmith College in 1993 and aJuris Doctor fromYale Law School in 1996.[3] At Yale, she won the Charles G. Albom Prize.[3]
After graduating from Yale, Archer clerked for JudgeAlvin Thompson of theUnited States District Court for the District of Connecticut,[4] and the following year (1997 to 1998) was a Marvin M. Karpatkin legal fellow at the ACLU.[5] Archer was assistant counsel at theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1998 to 2000, and then an associate at the law firmSimpson Thacher & Bartlett from 2000 to 2003.[6]
In 2003, Archer joined the faculty ofNew York Law School (NYLS), where she was the first dean ofdiversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, and associate dean for academic affairs and student engagement.[4] She led the school’s Racial Justice Project and the Impact Center for Public Interest Law, which she co-founded.[4]
Since 2009, she has been on the ACLU’s board, and since 2017 has been general counsel and a member of the board’s executive committee.[7] She is also a member of the boards of the New York Civil Liberties Union,[8] the Legal Aid Society,[9] and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.[10] In 2016 and again in 2017, Archer served as acting chair of theNew York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the body that investigates allegations ofpolice misconduct.[11]
After 15 years at NYLS, Archer moved toNew York University in July 2018.[2] Archer is Jacob K. Javits Professor and Professor of Clinical Law, Co-Faculty Director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, and director of the Civil Rights Clinic atNew York University School of Law.[3]
On January 30, 2021, a remote meeting of the ACLU board elected Archer president of the organization, making her the first African American to hold the position in the organization’s 101-year history.[7][12] As its eighth president, she chairs the board of directors, setting the direction the organization takes in civil litigation policies.[5][7] Archer succeededSusan N. Herman, a professor atBrooklyn Law School and ACLU president since 2008, who oversaw a period of growth with increased donations following the election of PresidentDonald Trump and extensive litigation during his administration.[7] In a statement on Archer’s election, Romero said that civil rights and racial justice were top priorities for the organization moving forward and noted Archer’s expertise in these fields.[7]
In 2016, Archer was honored by theNew York Law Journal which cited her as one of its Top Women in Law.[12]
In 2021, the Law and Society Association awarded Archer the John Hope Franklin Prize, Honorable Mention for her article "'White Men's Roads Through Black Men's Homes': Advancing Racial Equity Through Highway Reconstruction", which appeared in theVanderbilt Law Review.[13] She also received the 2021 Stephen Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award from the American Association of Law Schools,[14] and the Haywood Burns/Shanara Guilbert Award from the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.[3]
Archer is married to Richard Buery, a former deputy mayor ofNew York City. They live in Brooklyn with their two sons.[2]
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