John Payton, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, is one of the nation’s most accomplished civil rights attorneys. Payton spoke with NLJ associate editor Leigh Jones about two important Supreme Court cases he worked on. One involved affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School; the other secured key protections for minorities under the Voting Rights Act.

See the full list of lawyers honored in The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers.