22 April 2009
Attorneys Sharon Malheiro and Camilla Taylor will be honored at the 2009 Matthew Shepard Scholarship Awards Dinner on June 5, 2009. Sharon Malheiro was co-counsel in defending Judge Jeffrey Neary in the Alons v. Iowa District Court for Woodbury County civil union dissolution case, an expert witness in Varnum v. Brien marriage equality case, and was instrumental in encouraging Lambda Legal to successfully lead both cases, which resulted in victorious Iowa Supreme Court decisions.
She is a senior shareholder of the Davis Brown Law Firm. Sharon practices in the areas of Employment Law, including employment discrimination litigation, EEO/AA, and corporate employment policies and practices, as well as Media and Communications Law.
Sharon is current Vice President of the Firm’s Board of Directors. Sharon is an advocate for civil rights issues relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. She currently is the Chair of One-Iowa, a statewide organization seeking full equality for a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Iowa. She provides pro bono legal counsel for the Aids Project of Central Iowa, and is one of the cooperating attorneys for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. She is former President of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Central Iowa. She was a charter member of Lambda Beta Nu, Des Moines’ first lesbian breakfast club.
Sharon received her J.D. with honors and her B.A. from Drake University. Before entering private practice Sharon clerked for Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Louis A. Lavorato.
Camilla Taylor is Senior Staff Attorney in the Midwest Regional Office of Lambda Legal, and led Lambda Legal’s successful effort in litigating Varnum v. Brien in District Court and before the Iowa Supreme Court.
Camilla also obtained a favorable ruling from the state high court in 2005 in Alons v. Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, which held that seven antigay legislators, a pastor and a chuch had no standing to challenge a judge's decision to grant two Iowa women a dissolution of their Vermont civil union.
Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Camilla was a staff attorney with the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society of New York City. She represented indigent defendants on appeal before the New York Appellate Divisions, First and Second Departments, and the New York Court of Appeals. In June, 2002, Taylor won a ruling before the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Arnold that established strict guidelines in New York State for judicial intervention in criminal trials. Before her work with the Legal Aid Society of New York City, Camilla was a litigation associate with Shearman & Sterling.
Camilla received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. From Yale College, and is currently an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law.
The Awards Dinner is Friday, June 5, 2009, at 5:30 p.m. at the Hy-Vee Conference Center in West Des Moines. Tickets are on sale now at mssdinner.eychanerfoundation.org.