Jim Sandman

Diversity Lab Advisor

James J. Sandman is Distinguished Lecturer and Senior Consultant to the Future of the Profession Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is also President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the United States’ largest funder of civil legal aid programs. He served as President of LSC from 2011 to February, 2020. He practiced law with Arnold & Porter for 30 years and was the firm’s Managing Partner for a decade. He is a past President of the District of Columbia Bar and a former General Counsel of the District of Columbia Public Schools. 

Jim is chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Legal Needs Arising Out of the 2020 Pandemic. He is chair of the board of the D.C. Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Vice Chair of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, and a member of the boards of the Pro Bono Institute, Washington Performing Arts, Albany Law School, and the College of Saint Rose. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board, and the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. 

Jim was named one of the “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” by Legal Times in 2008. He has received the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Alumni Award of Merit and its Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award, the District of Columbia Bar’s Justice William J. Brennan Award, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s Louis Stokes Paragon Award, the Wiley Branton Award from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Legal Rights and Urban Affairs, and the Washington Council of Lawyers Presidents’ Award. He was a McGlothin Leadership Fellow at the College of William & Mary in 2014. He was awarded an honorary D.H.L. by the College of Saint Rose, where he was the commencement speaker. He has given commencement addresses at Villanova and Rutgers Law Schools and at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.

Jim is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston College. He received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Executive Editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He served as a law clerk to Judge Max Rosenn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.