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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release June 12, 1997
      PRESIDENT NAMES BILL LANN LEE AS ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
       FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

The President today announced his intent to nominate Bill Lann Lee to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

Bill Lann Lee of Los Angeles, California, has devoted his career to civil rights law. As a litigator, Mr. Lee is known as a pragmatic attorney and a skilled coalition builder. For the past twenty three years, he has worked with a wide variety of organizations and citizens in order to achieve consensus and obtain justice for victims of discrimination. He has served since 1989 as Western Regional Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). From 1983-1988, Mr. Lee was Supervising Attorney for Civil Rights Litigation at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles. From 1974-1982, Mr. Lee was Assistant Counsel at LDF in New York City. Mr. Lee has been active in a wide range of civil rights cases, including employment discri mination, school desegregation, health care accessability, public transportation equity, and federal financial assistance cases. Additionally, he has been an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Fordham University.

Mr. Lee was raised in New York City as the son of Chinese immigrants. His father, who volunteered for the U.S. Army and fought in the Pacific theater, endured bigotry upon his return and taught his children the value of scholarship and opportunity. He attended public schools, won a scholarship to Yale College, graduated with honors, and received a Juris Doctorate degree from Columbia Law School.

The Assistant Attorney General manages the following litigating sections: Coordination and Review, Criminal, Disability Rights, Educational Opportunities, Employment Litigation, Housing and Civil Enforcement, Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices, Special Litigation, and Voting. In addition, the Assistant Attorney General represents Division policies in the Department, among counterparts in the Administration, and to the U.S. Congress.

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