Virginia Sloan
I founded The Constitution Project in 1997 and I led it for 20 years until January 2018. At TCP, we enjoyed remarkable success in advocating for bipartisan consensus recommendations before federal, state and local policymakers, the media, and the public. I created TCP because I believed that the right and the left needed to come together to protect the U.S. Constitution and our democratic system and to be able to secure public policies that support liberty, justice and equality.
I received a BA from Skidmore College with honors, and a JD from UCLA Law School, becoming a member of the Order of the Coif. After law school and a clerkship for a federal judge, I became a Deputy Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles for three years and then worked for the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee beginning in early 1980. As counsel, I was privileged to work with some of the giants of the House — Father Robert Drinan, Robert Kastenmeier, and Don Edwards — on criminal justice reform, civil rights and civil liberties, and privacy law. From early 1995 to 1997, I was the Executive Director of the D.C. Circuit’s Task Force on Gender, Race, and Ethnic Bias.
I have received a number of honors during my legal career, including the Southern Center for Human Rights’ Equal Justice Award, the Legal Times “Champion” award as one of “30 lawyers who have had the greatest impact on the Washington legal community over the last 30 years and whose community and public service has set an example that other D.C. lawyers should follow,” the Award for Excellence in Advocacy in a Federal Issue Campaign from the Professional Women in Advocacy Conference, “for her efforts to save the federal defender system from drastic budget cuts,” and the Washington Council of Lawyers’ President’s Award for pro bono and public service.
I have been honored to serve on the boards of directors at a number of organizations, including the Southern Center for Human Rights, Peer Navigation Project, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Gideon’s Promise, Legal Action Center, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Washington Council of Lawyers (and now the Honorary Board), and Washington D.C. affiliate of the ACLU. I am a member of the International Association of Women Judges’ Board of Managerial Trustees, and a Trustee for the Council of Criminal Justice. I have also served in a variety of leadership roles for the ABA’s Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice.