| 1 | Name: | Mr. William T. Coleman | |
| Institution: | O'Melveny & Myers | ||
| Year Elected: | 2001 | ||
| Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
| Subdivision: | 502. Physicians, Theologians, Lawyers, Jurists, Architects, and Members of Other Professions | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1920 | ||
| Death Date: | March 31, 2017 | ||
William T. Coleman, Jr., was a Senior Partner and the Senior Counselor in O'Melveny & Myers LLP's Washington, D.C. office. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from Harvard University Law School in 1946, where he was an editor of the Law Review. As a member of Thurgood Marshall's legal team at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Mr. Coleman was a main architect of the legal strategy leading to Brown v. Board of Education and the desegregation of schools and other public facilities throughout the United States. He has played a leading role for nearly half a century in the effort to give reality to the principle of equality under the law. Mr. Coleman had extensive litigation experience in the corporate, antitrust, natural gas and constitutional law fields; foreign trade and other international matters; and the handling of corporate acquisitions and divestitures. In addition to his active practice of the law, he became president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1971 - later serving as its chair - as well as adviser to six presidents, including Gerald Ford, who appointed him Secretary of Transportation in 1975. William T. Coleman was the recipient of numerous honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995), an officer of the French Legion of Honor (1979), the NAACP's Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award (1997) and the Judge Henry J. Friendly Medal of the Council of the American Law Institute (2000). His autobiography, Counsel for the Situation, was released in 2010. Mr. Coleman was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2001. He died March 31, 2017, at the age of 96. | |||