Lambda Legal Announces Camilla Taylor as New Marriage Project Director

(New York, April 4, 2011) - Today, on the heels of the second anniversary of marriage equality in Iowa, Lambda Legal announced that Camilla Taylor, lead attorney on the Iowa marriage equality lawsuit, has been promoted to national Marriage Project Director.

"Camilla is the ideal person to take over the reins of our Marriage Project. She has done an extraordinary job fighting for the rights of LGBT and HIV-positive people in the Midwest and beyond for nearly nine years at Lambda Legal. She was the architect of our Varnum v. Brien case that won marriage equality in Iowa. She has become well known not only for her legal prowess, but also for her ability to passionately express to the public why same-sex couples deserve the freedom to marry," said Legal Director for Lambda Legal, Jon Davidson.

"We've seen some extraordinary advances over the last few years for same-sex couples and their children as more and more states, counties, and cities have taken steps to respect their relationships and the right of same-sex couples to marry," said Camilla Taylor, Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal. "Lambda Legal has helped create this momentum, and I'm excited to work with a great team of colleagues and partners across the country to keep it going."

During her tenure at Lambda Legal, Taylor was lead counsel in Lambda Legal's four-year marriage equality lawsuit in Iowa, Varnum v. Brien, in which the Iowa Supreme Court, by unanimous decision, struck down Iowa's marriage ban in April 2009. In Ohio and Michigan, she successfully litigated child custody cases at the appellate level including In re JDF, Morris v. Hawk, and Giancaspro v. Congelton, defending lesbian parents against efforts to deprive them of contact with their children based on now discredited arguments that the state's antigay constitutional amendment invalidates same-sex couples' adoption decrees or custody agreements.

Prior to joining Lambda Legal in 2002, Taylor was a staff attorney with the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society of New York City. She represented indigent defendants on appeal before the New York Appellate Divisions, First and Second Departments, and the New York Court of Appeals. Before her work with the Legal Aid Society of New York City, Taylor was a litigation associate with Shearman & Sterling. Taylor received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from Yale College. She is currently also an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law.

Taylor fills the role recently vacated by Jennifer C. Pizer, who has become the Legal Director for the Williams Institute after 15 years of leadership at Lambda Legal.

PHOTO: To download a photo of Taylor click here for the staff photo gallery.

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