Dan Bradley Awardee, Chai Feldblum (2019)

The Dan Bradley Award is the LGBT Bar’s highest honor. It recognizes the efforts of a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legal community whose work, like Attorney Dan Bradley, has led the way in our struggle for equality under the law. Dan Bradley was the first chair of the American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibility’s Committee on the Rights of Gay People, now known as the Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Bradley saw the law as a powerful instrument of social justice, and he believed that lawyers had an obligation to place their skills as advocates at the service of the least powerful among us.

We are delighted to announce that Chai Feldblum is 2019’s Dan Bradley Awardee. The Dan Bradley Award is the LGBT Bar’s most prestigious award. It recognizes the efforts of a member of the LGBTQ+ legal advocacy community whose work has led the way in our struggle for legal equality. Congratulations, Chai!

Chai Feldblum received her JD from Harvard College of Law in 1985. After graduating, she clerked for Judge Frank M. Coffin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and then for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the U.S. Supreme Court. Chai served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1988 to 1990 while also leading a group of attorneys in drafting the American with Disabilities Act. In 1991, Chai began teaching at Georgetown University Law Center, where she founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation Clinic and served as the Center’s Director. Chai also served as Legal Director for the Campaign for Military Service, which lobbied to overturn “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Additionally, she took the lead in drafting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, legislation seeking to prohibit discrimination by employers on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.