Dorothy Fernandez is an attorney who practiced in the San Francisco Bay Area for over fifteen years. Since May 2012, she has been teaching as an adjunct professor at local law schools.

Dorothy has a long-standing commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. While attending Harvard Law School, she served as a co-chair of HLS Lambda and she also worked with Lambda Legal and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. After law school, she served as a board member of the Pride Law Fund. While in private practice, she dedicated pro bono time to LGBT litigation efforts, including work on an amicus brief filed in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on behalf of a Chilean lesbian who had lost custody of her children because of her sexual orientation, as well as work on an amicus brief in Strauss v. Horton, the case that challenged Proposition 8 in California’s Supreme Court.

Dorothy joined NCLR’s board in June 2009. She is drawn to NCLR because of its focus on ensuring that all members of the LGBT community have an advocate. She also appreciates that NCLR has often been on the cutting-edge of many legal issues, including with its family law work, but also in areas such as tackling homophobia in women’s sports.