(Washington, D.C.) — In honor of his work to foster the development of inclusive communities, expand access to opportunity, and fight displacement, Thomas Silverstein, associate director of the Fair Housing & Community Development Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, has received the Shaping Justice Rising Star Award from the University of Virginia School of Law.
As a joint effort of the Public Interest Law Association, the Program in Law and Public Service, and UVA’s Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center, the Shaping Justice award recognizes alumni who work in public service and is intended to inspire future public servants. Silverstein was honored on February 4 during the law school’s sixth annual Shaping Justice conference.
“The University of Virginia School of Law helped to equip me with the tools that I use every day to fight for the Lawyers’ Committee’s clients,” said Thomas Silverstein, associate director of the Fair Housing & Community Development Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “I am honored to receive this award and look forward to working with and mentoring the next generation of civil rights lawyers from UVA.”
Silverstein oversees the impact litigation docket on fair housing issues at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The organization aims to combat housing discrimination and promote greater opportunity for low-income people of color through enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. The legal team works with local governments to evaluate and recommend fair housing strategies, provides legal assistance to housing justice organizations, and advocates for the adoption and enforcement of Housing and Urban Development rules to ensure Black people and other communities of color have equitable access to critical resources and meaningful housing options.
“Thomas is an amazing litigator and most certainly a rising star in the fair housing litigation space,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The Lawyers’ Committee is grateful to have Thomas leading our fair housing litigation efforts. He has a brilliant legal mind, but exhibits patience and thoughtfulness as a leader, while putting his heart and soul into zealous advocacy on behalf of clients and their communities using the law to further our mission to make the promises of democracy real for all.”
Silverstein is a national leader in providing grassroots housing justice organizers with legal and policy assistance. He has published extensively on the convergence of civil rights law and land use law, and he routinely participates in conference panels and webinars on a variety of civil rights and housing law and policy themes. He began his legal career as the Lawyers’ Committee’s 2013-2014 George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Legal Fellow after earning his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2013. Silverstein was elevated to associate director of the Fair Housing & Community Development Project at the Lawyers’ Committee in 2021.
###
About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org
