Scholarship Established in Honor of Lani Guinier ’74
A year after her death in 2022, Yale Law School has created the Lani Guinier ’74 Memorial Scholarship. Guinier’s passion for civil rights emerged at a young age, and she dedicated her life to addressing issues of race, gender, class, democracy, access to higher education, and social justice. The scholarship in her name can remove obstacles to the legal profession and open doors to future generations as they pursue their studies at Yale Law School.
Guinier was the first Black woman appointed to a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School, where she was the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law, Emerita. Previously, she was a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. During her 30-year career, Guinier authored dozens of scholarly articles and five books. Her pioneering scholarship has inspired generations of lawyers, activists, and scholars and left an indelible mark upon the law and legal pedagogy.
Before teaching, Guinier worked in the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Carter administration. She then joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the 1980s, where she led the voting rights project. Guinier championed the renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and successfully litigated voting rights cases throughout the South.
