MoForever Alumni News Winter 2021

19 | MoForever Winter 2021 Drew S. Days III was a renowned civil rights litigator who had worked in two presidential administrations before joining Morrison & Foerster’s appellate and Supreme Court division in 1997. Prior to his appointment as the first African American to head a U.S. Department of Justice division, Drew advocated on behalf of fair housing practices and, through his work with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, desegregated the schools in his hometown of Tampa. Drew was a gifted trial lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court and a beloved law professor who taught at his alma mater, Yale Law School, for decades. Drew’s unwavering commitment to social justice was reflected in his work, but the MoFo family will especially remember him as a humble and warm man who regarded everyone around him with extraordinary kindness. Drew passed away on November 15, 2020, at the age of 79. DREW S. DAYS I I I IN MEMORIAM It is with deep fondness and admiration that we remember the life of Drew Days III. Drew embodied the very best of Morrison & Foerster through his lifelong dedication to fighting on behalf of the oppressed and marginalized. For example, under Drew’s leadership, MoFo’s Appellate Practice Group served as co-counsel for the Conference of Chief Justices, in the capacity of amicus curiae before the Supreme Court. As a result, the group successfully defended the financing of legal services for the poor regarding a constitutional challenge to Brown v. Legal Foundation of Washington . By the time Drew joined MoFo’s appellate and Supreme Court division in 1997, he had already made an impact on history. In 1977, he became the first African American to head a U.S. Department of Justice division after President Jimmy Carter appointed him Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, where he dealt with such issues as desegregation, police misconduct, and fair housing. In 1993, he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to return to the DOJ as solicitor general, where he served until 1996. Drew was also an active member in the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In addition to his public service, Drew served as a beloved and distinguished professor at his alma mater, Yale Law School. Drew successfully argued 24 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, 17 of these as solicitor general; he also oversaw more than 180 appearances before the Supreme Court. Drew was renowned not just for his skill as a litigator, but the ideals for which he fought. While fresh out of law school, he spent a year working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., advocating against discriminatory housing practices. In the late ’60s, he served in the Peace Corps with his wife, Anne Langdon-Days, in Honduras, before returning to the United States and joining the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). It was through his work with the LDF that Drew helped win Mannings v. Board of Public Instruction of Hillsborough County, Florida , the case that desegregated the schools he attended in his own hometown of Tampa. During his tenure at MoFo, Drew also worked with the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the People for the American Way Foundation to draft the separation of church and state amicus brief—and ultimately helped overturn precedent preventing religious schools from receiving federal aid. Drew’s MoFo colleagues quickly came to regard him as a mentor because of his brilliance and immense generosity of spirit. “It was a pleasure to work with and learn from a great litigator like Drew,” said Deanne Maynard, co-chair of the Mofo’s Appellate +