The Dan Bradley Award is the LGBTQ+ Bar’s highest honor. It recognizes the efforts of a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legal community whose work, like Attorney Dan Bradley, has led the way in our struggle for equality under the law. Dan Bradley was the first chair of the American Bar Association Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee on the Rights of Gay People, now known as the Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Bradley saw the law as a powerful instrument of social justice, and he believed that lawyers had an obligation to place their skills as advocates at the service of the least powerful among us.
2024 Winner
For more than 50 years, from his practice in rural Somerset County, New Jersey, Bill Singer has been working to create and protect queer families. He is an advocate as well as an attorney, speaking, writing, testifying, and lobbying.
Starting in the late 1970’s, Bill fought to protect the parental rights of lesbians and gay men coming out of heterosexual marriages. As lesbians and gay men started to create families on their own, Bill worked to reflect their intentions and protect those families through a wide range of creative estate and life planning, including co-parenting and gamete donation agreements. As same-sex couples won legal recognition of their relationships, Bill helped families protect the status of the non-genetic, non-gestational parent through second parent and stepparent adoptions.
After marriage equality became the law of the land, Bill Singer conceived the term and process now known as “confirmatory” adoption. Confirmatory adoptions streamline the adoption process eliminating intrusive background checks and home studies enabling queer families to obtain a judicial order subject to full faith and credit. These judgments allow families to travel and move freely.
In 2024, in another win for queer families, Bill co-authored legislation to broaden the New Jersey health insurance mandate to cover infertility treatment for everyone, married or unmarried, single or not, whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity. Working on these issues decades ago before access to the internet, Bill felt isolated, far from fellow attorneys in metropolitan areas engaged in the same endeavors. To connect with fellow attorneys, Bill did two things.
First, in the late 1980’s, Bill became a founding member of what was is now the National LGBTQ+ Bar. Bill served as General Counsel to the Bar for 35 years. Among his accomplishments are securing tax exempt status for the Association and the Foundation, winning trademark registration for Lavender Law ® and overcoming objections and securing affiliate status for the Bar with the American Bar Association. Bill is pleased and amazed to see how the Bar has grown and developed, to see the importance of the Lavender Law conference and the size and interest generated by the Career Fair. This progress exceeds what the Bar founders ever dreamt.
Second, building on an idea from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), in 2009, Bill founded the LGBT Family Law Institute ® (FLI). Initially, Bill conceived it as a one-time meeting at Lavender Law for experienced lawyers serving the LGBT community. An enthusiastic response led to national and regional meetings and a robust listserve. As the US project flourished, the idea spread internationally with FLI affiliates in UK/Ireland, Australia, Europe, and Latin America. Bill is proud to have connected attorneys worldwide who are working to protect our community.
Bill is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Attorneys, a member of the National Family Law Advisory Council of NCLR and Treasurer of New York Attorneys for Adoption and Family Formation. Bill has been married to Raoul Daniel Luna for 20 years. They are the proud fathers of a daughter Quinn and grandson Drake. He received a degree in history with distinction from Rutgers College and his JD from the Columbia University School of Law.
Past Winners:
2022 | Lavender Law - Los Angeles
Jennifer C. Pizer, Senior Counsel and Director of Strategic Initiatives, Lambda Legal
Mia Yamamoto, Criminal Defense Attorney and Civil Rights Activist, Law Office of Mia Yamamoto
2021 | Lavender Law - Virtual
Cathy Sakimura, Deputy Director & Family Law Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
2020 | Lavender Law – Virtual
David Lat, Legal Recruiter – Managing Director, Lateral Link
2019 | Lavender Law - Philadelphia
Chai Feldblum, Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
2018 | Lavender Law - New York City
Justice Rosalyn H. Richter, Associate Justice, New York State Appellate Division First Department
2017 | Lavender Law 2017 - San Francisco, CA
Douglas Hallward-Dreimeir and the Pro Bono team at Ropes & Gray LLP
2016 | Lavender Law 2016 - Washington, D.C.
Kevin Cathcart, former Executive Director of Lambda Legal
2015 | Lavender Law 2015 - Chicago, IL
Mary Bonauto, Director, Civil Rights Project, GLAD
2014 | Lavender Law 2014 – New York, NY
Evan Wolfson, Founder and President, Freedom to Marry
Honorary Dan Bradley award presented posthumously to David Rosenblum, Legal Director, Mazzoni Center
2013 | Lavender Law 2013 – San Francisco, CA
James Esseks, Director of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Project, ACLU
2012 | Lavender Law 2012 – Washington, DC
Jennifer Levi, Director of Transgender Rights Project, GLAD
2011 | Lavender Law 2011 – Hollywood, CA
Nancy Polikoff, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
2010 | Lavender Law 2010 — Miami Beach, FL
Jon Davidson, Legal Director, Lambda Legal
2009 | Lavender Law 2009 — Brooklyn, NY
Dr. Frank Kameny, one of the nation’s first and foremost gay activists
2008 | Lavender Law 2008 — San Francisco, CA
Shannon Minter, Legal Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
Therese Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney, City of San Francisco
2007 | Lavender Law 2007 — San Francisco, CA
Patricia M. Logue, Associate Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County
2006 | Lavender Law 2006 — Washington, DC
Urvashi Vaid, Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation
2005 | Lavender Law 2005 — San Diego, CA
Arthur S. Leonard, Professor of Law at New York Law School and author of Law Notes
2004 | Lavender Law 2004 — Minneapolis, MN
Ruth E. Harlow, former Legal Director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund; Lead Counsel in the landmark case, Lawrence v. Texas
2003 | Lavender Law 2003 — New York, NY
Matthew Coles, Director, ACLU National Lesbian and Gay Rights Project
Leslie Cooper, Staff Attorney, ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project
2002 | Lavender Law 2002 — Philadelphia, PA
Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights, San Francisco, CA
2001 | Lavender Law 2001 — Dallas, TX
Phyllis Randolph Frye, Transgender Activist and Civil Rights Leader, Houston, TX
2000 | Lavender Law 2000 — Washington, D.C.
Mark D. Agrast, Legislative Director & Counsel to Rep. William H. Delahunt, Former NLGLA Co-Chair
1999 | Lavender Law 1999 — Seattle, WA
Hon. Stephen M. Lachs, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge
1998 | Lavender Law 1998 — Boston, MA
John Ward, Founder & Former Executive Director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders
1997 | Lavender Law 1997 – West Hollywood, CA
Abby Rubenfeld, Rubenfeld & Associates, Nashville, Tennessee; Former Legal Director of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
1996 | Lavender Law V - New Orleans, LA
Suzanne Goldberg, Attorney for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
Tom Stoddard, Former Executive Director of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
Jeanne Winer, Trial Counsel for Plaintiffs in Evans v. Romer
1994 | Lavender Law IV-Portland, OR
William E. Adams, Jr., Nova University School of Law, Fort Lauderdale, FL
1992 | Lavender Law III – Chicago, IL
Sue Wilson, Attorney for Sharon Kowalski
1990 | Lavender Law II – Atlanta, GA
Nan Hunter, Professor, Brooklyn Law School; Former Head of Gay & Lesbian Rights Project, ACLU