Deborah Archer

Deborah Archer
President of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union
Incumbent
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. Archeris an American civil rights lawyer and law professor. She is the Jacob K. Javits Professor atNew York Universityand professor of clinical law atNew York University School of Law.She also directs the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law and the Civil Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law. 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.

Early life and education

The daughter of immigrants fromJamaica,Archer was raised inWindsor, Connecticut.She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government fromSmith Collegein 1993 and aJuris DoctorfromYale Law Schoolin 1996.At Yale, she won the Charles G. Albom Prize.

Career

After graduating from Yale, Archer clerked for JudgeAlvin Thompsonof theUnited States District Court for the District of Connecticut,and the following year (1997 to 1998) was a Marvin M. Karpatkin legal fellow at the ACLU.Archer was assistant counsel at theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fundfrom 1998 to 2000, and then an associate at the law firmSimpson Thacher & Bartlettfrom 2000 to 2003.

In 2003, Archer joined the faculty ofNew York Law School(NYLS), where she was the first dean ofdiversity and inclusionand chief diversity officer, and associate dean for academic affairs and student engagement.She led the school’s Racial Justice Project and the Impact Center for Public Interest Law, which she co-founded.

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.She is also a member of the boards of the New York Civil Liberties Union,the Legal Aid Society,and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.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.

After 15 years at NYLS, Archer moved toNew York Universityin July 2018.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.

ACLU president

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.As its eighth president, she chairs the board of directors, setting the direction the organization takes in civil litigation policies.Archer succeededSusan N. Herman,a professor atBrooklyn Law Schooland ACLU president since 2008, who oversaw a period of growth with increased donations following the election of PresidentDonald Trumpand extensive litigation during his administration.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.

Honors

In 2016, Archer was honored by theNew York Law Journalwhich cited her as one of its Top Women in Law.

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.She also received the 2021 Stephen Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award from the American Association of Law Schools,and the Haywood Burns/Shanara Guilbert Award from the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference.

Personal life

Archer is married to Richard Buery, a former deputy mayor ofNew York City.They live in Brooklyn with their two sons.

Selected works

• Archer, Deborah N. (2020).“‘White Men’s Roads Through Black Men’s Homes’: Advancing Racial Equity Through Highway Reconstruction”.Vanderbilt Law Review.73:1259.
• Archer, Deborah N. (2019–20).“Exile From Main Street”.Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.55:788.
• Archer, Deborah N. (2019).The New Housing Segregation: The Jim Crow Effects of Crime-Free Housing Ordinances.Michigan Law Review.118:173.
• Archer, Deborah N. (2009–2010)."Introduction: Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline".New York Law School Law Review.54:867.
• Archer, Deborah N.; Williams, Kele S. (2005–2006)."Making America the Land of Second Chances: Restoring Socioeconomic Rights for Ex-Offenders".New York University Review of Law & Social Change.30:527.
• Archer, Deborah N. (2013)."There Is No Santa Claus: The Challenge of Teaching the Next Generation of Civil Rights Lawyers in a Post-Racial Society".Columbia Journal of Race and Law.4:55.

External links

• “Where Do We Go From Here?: A Conversation About the Future of Race and Inequality in America”– discussion withAnthony Thompsonat NYU Law’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, September 25, 2020