Alumni in Residence with Tona Boyd J.D. ’09 of the Legal Defense Fund

Wednesday, October 9, from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. ET

The Alumni in Residence program connects current HLS students with accomplished HLS alumni for one-on-one career mentoring and advice. You’re invited to meet with Tona Boyd J.D. ’09 (Associate Director-Counsel, Legal Defense Fund) during her virtual office hours on Wednesday, October 9. Sign up for a 20-minute Zoom appointment.

Tona Boyd J.D. ’09

Tona Boyd serves as the Legal Defense Fund’s Associate Director-Counsel, where she works with senior leadership to set and execute the strategic direction of the organization’s legal programs, operations, and administration. Tona most recently served as Special Counsel and Special Assistant to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office in the Biden-Harris Administration, where she worked to advance President Biden’s agenda related to racial justice, equity, and judicial nominations. As a member of the White House Counsel’s Office, she provided legal advice to the President and executive agencies and led policy development on criminal justice reform, including policing, sentencing, clemency, drug policy, and community violence intervention, as well as civil rights – including hate crimes and domestic terrorism.

As a senior member of the judicial nominations team, Tona supported the selection, preparation, and confirmation of federal judicial nominees, including D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as the full slate of the United States Sentencing Commission appointees. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, Tona was Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor to United States Senator Cory A. Booker on the Senate Judiciary Committee. There, she led a team responsible for providing the Senator with legal and political analysis of issues related to criminal justice, racial justice, civil rights, immigration, antitrust, intellectual property, privacy and technology, firearms, constitutional law, and judicial and executive nominations.

Tona began her legal career as a litigator in the Honors Program of the United States Department of Justice. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Tona served as elbow-law-clerk to the Honorable Roger L. Gregory on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

More Information

View our calendar for upcoming AIR events and more information on visiting alumni. Students must reserve appointments in advance, and space is limited.

Contact Jeff Newton in the HLS Alumni Center (alumnicenter@law.harvard.edu) with any questions or accessibility needs.