Suzette Malveaux has received the 2024 American Bar Foundation Fellow’s Outstanding Service Award. The award is given annually to a fellow who has contributed more than 30 years of significant service to the legal profession.
Currently, Malveaux is the Moses Lasky Professor of Law and director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado Law School. As a professor, her teaching focuses on civil procedure, complex litigation, employment discrimination, civil rights, and constitutional law.
Before transitioning into the academia field, Malveaux had an extensive career as a practicing lawyer. She began her career in law as a clerk for Judge Robert L. Carter. From there, she went on to serve as a civil rights lawyer and class action specialist. During this time, she appeared before the United States Supreme Court representing over 1.5 million women in a class action case against Wal-Mart. She also spent six years as pro bono counsel for plaintiffs in the Alexander v. State of Oklahoma, the class action lawsuit filed against Tulsa by victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
“I am incredibly honored to receive this lifetime achievement award. I’m so grateful to belong to a community committed to studying and using the law for the public good. Especially now, it’s important to support each other and work together to defend democracy,” said Professor Malveaux.
Malveaux is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University. She received her juris doctorate from the New York University School of Law.