Lambda Adds To Its Legal Team

(NEW YORK, April 5, 2001) — Building on its groundbreaking civil rights work, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund has added an experienced litigator, Jennifer Middleton, as a staff attorney in its New York headquarters.

Lambda Executive Director Kevin M. Cathcart announced Middleton’s arrival, saying “Jennifer makes an invaluable addition to Lambda at a pivotal time for our legal work. Her contributions to the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV and AIDS will be exciting and substantial.”

Added Legal Director Ruth E. Harlow, “Jennifer is a seasoned and talented attorney who will bring vital strengths to a wide range of our work. As our legal cases increasingly take center stage in courts across the country, her expertise and experience will be needed more than ever.”

Middleton, who served as a staff attorney at the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project before joining Lambda, has already done much precedent-setting work on behalf of lesbians, gay men and people with HIV. Among her accomplishments at the ACLU is a sweeping legal victory on behalf of a lesbian high school teacher in a federal employment discrimination case in Utah. In addition, Middleton recently completed a federal trial in which the ACLU represented an Oregon ski patroller who was fired when he refused to submit to an HIV test, and late last year, she filed a novel federal employment discrimination suit on behalf of a transgender truck driver in Louisiana.

Middleton will build on this track record at Lambda, where she will join the team of attorneys working to win the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, in addition to challenging HIV-related discrimination, improving workplace fairness, and expanding legal protections for transgendered people.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Lambda’s top-flight legal crew as we move ahead to gain full equality for the LGBT community and people with HIV/AIDS,” Middleton said.

Prior to her work at the ACLU, Middleton was an A. Crawford Greene Fellow at the Employment Law Center in San Francisco in addition to being an instructor at City College of San Francisco. Before attending law school, Middleton was an union organizer with the Service Employees International Union for three years.

A 1995 magna cum laude graduate from Harvard Law School, Middleton received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University. As a law student, Middleton served as an editor in chief for the Harvard Women’s Law Journal and as president of the Labor Law Project.

Lambda is the oldest and largest legal organization dedicated to advancing the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV and AIDS. With 16 attorneys, Lambda has its headquarters in New York and regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, and plans to open an office in Dallas in 2002.

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Contact: Peg Byron 212-809-8585 x 230, 888-987-1984 (pager)
Jennifer Middleton 212-809-8585 x 213