Wall of Greatness

Shavar D. Jeffries

Shavar D. Jeffries is an award winning lawyer, professor and community leader. He is currently a professor at Seton Hall Law’s Center for Social Justice. Shavar works in the areas of civil-rights scholarship, advocacy, and litigation, focusing on education and housing inequities affecting urban communities. He has represented thousands of urban children in education-reform litigation. Shavar has served as Counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General. In that role, he had oversight responsibility for several divisions of the office, including the Division on Civil Rights, the Juvenile Justice Commission, and the state’s multi-state litigation and advocacy portfolio.

He was elected in April 2010 to the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board, receiving the largest number of votes of anyone for that position in almost 10 years. He is on the National Leadership Council for Communities in Schools, a national youth-services and development organization, and is the board chair of iReform, an organization seeking to educate and organize Newark parents about school transformation. He is also on the boards of Seton Hall Preparatory School and Students for Education Reform. From 2004 through 2007, Shavar was Board President of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark.

For his public-interest advocacy, Shavar has received numerous honors, including honors by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission for promoting Dr. King’s legacy; the New Jersey Network Foundation’s Byrne Distinguished Public Servant Award; the Garden State Bar Young Lawyer Award; the TEAM Schools “Be the Change” Award; the Greater Newark HUD Tenants Council Service Award, and recognition in 2005 by the Newark Star Ledger as a “Person Who Made a Difference,” and recognition as a “Rising Star” by New Jersey Superlawyers Magazine.

Club Location: Newark, N.J.
Occupation: Lawyer/Professor
Member Since: