Jon M. Greenbaum

Jon Greenbaum is the Legal Director for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law where he is responsible for managing the Committee's efforts to seek racial justice.  Greenbaum oversees the Committee's legal Projects: Community Development; Educational Opportunities; Employment Discrimination; Environmental Justice; Fair Housing & Fair Lending; Voting Rights; and Legal Mobilization and Public Policy.  Greenbaum was promoted to Legal Director in March 2009.  Greenbaum also serves on the Executive Management Team of the Committee.

From December 2003 to January 2010, Greenbaum served as the Director of the Committee's Voting Rights Project, where he led its program to achieve equality and protect advances in voting rights for racial and ethnic minorities and other traditionally disfranchised groups.   Highlights during his tenure included the Lawyers' Committee's leadership in Election Protection, the nation's leading nonpartisan voter protection program; the Committee's documentation of the record justifying reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and the defense of the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Act in court; and groundbreaking litigation, including a constitutional challenge to Ohio's system in administering elections which led to a settlement that introduced multiple reforms designed to improve and equalize the experience of Ohio voters.

Greenbaum has successfully litigated numerous cases in the federal courts and has argued before the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.  He has testified before Congress, state legislatures and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has also presented to numerous law schools and governmental, civic and bar associations. In addition, he has appeared on television and radio interviews and in print media.

Greenbaum is co-chair of the Voting Rights Task Force of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the national umbrella organization of American civil rights groups.  He is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and is co-author of "Government-Issued Photo Identification and Proof of Citizenship Requirements for Voters" in America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights (American Bar Association 2008).

Prior to joining the Lawyers' Committee in 2003, he served as senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1997-2003. While at the Department of Justice, he instituted Voting Rights Act lawsuits on behalf of minority voters nationwide and educated government officials and community members on federal voting protections. From 1993-1996, he was a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of Dewey Ballantine LLP.