WASHINGTON – Danielle Holley, dean of the Howard University School of Law will be presented with the Ollie May Cooper Award at the Washington Bar Association’s (WBA) 44th Annual Award Program at 6:30 p.m. on November 3, 2022. The event will take place in The Honorable Damon J. Keith Moot Court Room at Howard University School of Law, located at 2900 Van Ness Street, NW, DC. Also receiving the award will be D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The Ollie May Cooper Award is named in honor of the late Ollie May Cooper, a tireless worker for equal justice, who was employed at Howard University School of Law for more than four decades. Among other things, she was the founder of the first female, African American law firm in the District of Columbia, and one of the first female law firms in the nation. Since 1979, this award has been presented annually “to a member of the Washington Bar Association who has given outstanding service to the Bar or whose leadership and organizational efforts have enhanced the image of the Association.”

“I’m incredibly honored to receive the Ollie Mae Cooper Award. Ollie Mae Cooper was a critically important leader in the history of Howard’s Law School, and celebrating her legacy is a special moment. I hope to continue to represent the values promoted by Ollie Mae Cooper and the Washington Bar Association: justice, equity, and excellence,” said Holley.

The Founders’ Lecture Series is presented annually in honor of the founders of the Washington Bar Association. The WBA founders were Ulysses Simpson Garnes, George E.C. Hayes, Charles Hamilton Houston, Isaiah Lisemby, Louis Rothschild Mehlinger, Charles E. Robinson and J. Franklin Wilson. This year’s 42nd Founders’ Lecturer will be prominent historian and author Edna Greene Medford, PhD, a renowned Lincoln, emancipation and reconstruction scholar and author. Her most recent work, “Lincoln and Emancipation” is in its second printing. Its theme will be the topic of her lecture which draws many parallels with the challenging issues confronting us today. Medford is a professor of history emerita and former associate provost for faculty affairs at Howard University.

The Washington Bar Association is a local affiliate of the National Bar Association. The Ollie May Cooper Awards and the Founders’ Lecture will take place in. A jazz reception will follow the formal program. WBA President Dionna Maria Lewis extends an open invitation to WBA members, the legal community, and members of the public to attend the 2022 WBA 44th Annual Ollie May Cooper Award Ceremony & 42nd Annual Founders’ Lecture Series.