October 25, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Vernon E. Jordan Jr. -- attorney, presidential adviser and legendary civil rights leader -- is the recipient of the National Public Service Award from the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School. Jordan, a 1957 graduate of DePauw University, was honored October 19 for his lifetime of public service.
"The National Public Service Award is designated for an attorney whose public service work has had broad, national impact," notes an announcement.
"Vernon Jordan's career reflects Stanford Law's fundamental and underlying values – that public service must be a central part of any lawyer's life," says Larry Kramer, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and dean. "He is a 
role model for our students as someone who has integrated a powerful, lifetime commitment to equality into a remarkably diverse legal career." (at right: Jordan addresses DePauw's Alumni Reunion Weekend; June 4, 1982)
The text notes, "Over the course of his career, Mr. Jordan has been a leader in the civil rights movement, starting after graduating from law school when he worked to empower African Americans in the South via community organizing and voter registration drives, including serving on the legal team that desegregated the University of Georgia. He later led several major organizations and successfully fundraised to finance black colleges, job training programs, early childhood education, and other causes dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty. Mr. Jordan has served as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League, Inc.; executive director of the United Negro College Fund, Inc.; director of the Voter Education Project of the Southern Regional Council; attorney-consultant at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity; assistant to the executive director of the Southern Regional Council; Georgia field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and as an attorney in private practice in Arkansas and Georgia. He also recently served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, of the United States Institute of Peace."
Jordan has also been a member of the President's Advisory Committee for the Points of Light Initiative Foundation; the Secretary
of State's Advisory Committee on South Africa; the Advisory Council on Social Security; and the Presidential Clemency Board.
An advisory member of DePauw's Board of Trustees, Jordan is a partner at Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York and is senior managing director of Lazard Group LLC. He is also of counsel/senior counsel at Akin Gump.
Read more at the website of the Sacramento Bee.
Last month, Vernon Jordan was the recipient of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's (MCCA) first Lifetime Achievement Award.
On November 18, Jordan will return to the DePauw campus to introduce his friend, President Bill Clinton, at a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture which will take place in Neal Fieldhouse. Details can be found in this recent article.