Reginald T. Shuford, the new executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, is a seasoned litigator who says that he knew from the age of 6 that he wanted to be a lawyer. By the age of 12 or so, Shuford said, he knew that he wanted to be the sort of lawyer who worked to protect people’s rights.

“And I never wavered from that decision,” Shuford said in an interview last week in the corner office he’d moved into just four days before.