NCLR is proud to welcome three new attorneys to our growing legal team. Liz Seaton, Ilona Turner, and Ming Wong bring years of expertise, passion, and commitment to social justice to the NCLR legal team.

Liz Seaton, Esq.
Director of Projects and Managing Attorney

Liz Seaton joined the staff of NCLR after two years as Deputy Director at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. She is a founding member and current board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. Prior to working at ACS, she spent six years at the Human Rights Campaign, most recently as HRC’s General Counsel and Legal Director. She originally joined the staff of HRC as Deputy Field Director focusing on HRC’s efforts to support the legislative work of state LGBT groups organized as the Equality Federation. Prior to taking leadership of HRC’s legal work, she worked extensively on HRC’s federal legislative agenda, including building support for transgender-inclusive legislation and co-authoring “Transgender Americans: A Handbook for Understanding.”

Her background includes practicing family law and employment discrimination law with NCLR’s National Family Law Advisory Council member Susan Silber at the law firm of Silber & Perlman., P.A. in Takoma Park, Maryland. Liz is the former Executive Director of Equality Maryland (then Free State Justice) and the former Associate Legal Services Director at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C.

She earned her J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1994 where, as adjunct faculty she has taught both Legal Methods and Sexual Orientation (and Gender Identity) and the Law. Liz earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Women’s Studies at The George Washington University in 1990. Liz lives in Takoma Park with her partner and their child.

Ilona Turner, Esq.
Staff Attorney

Ilona M. Turner came to NCLR from Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, a union-side labor law firm in New York City, where she represented unions, union-affiliated health and retirement plans, and employees. Ilona earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2000, where she graduated with honors including Phi Beta Kappa. In 2006, she received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall). While in law school, she was awarded the Mary C. Dunlap Fellowship to spend a summer at NCLR working to advance transgender rights, and also worked at the public interest law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C. She served as Managing Editor of the California Law Review, and authored Sex Stereotyping Per Se: Transgender Employees and Title VII, 95 Cal. L. Rev. 561 (2007).

Prior to law school, Ilona worked as a Legislative Assistant to progressive icon Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg and subsequently as Legislative Advocate for Equality California. She helped win the passage of groundbreaking LGBT-rights legislation that, among other things, significantly expanded the rights of domestic partners under California law, and prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and expression in employment and housing.

Ming Wong, Esq.
Helpline Attorney

Shin-Ming Wong graduated with a BA from Stanford University in 2003, where he majored in Philosophy. He was awarded his JD from U.C. Hastings in 2007, with a focus on Public Interest law. As an undergraduate he was active in student organizing around LGBT and people of color issues and was on staff at the Stanford LGBT Community Resources Center. While in law school he did clinical work at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and volunteered at the General Assistance Advocacy Project. He also served as co-chair of Hastings’ LGBT student group, Outlaw. He clerked at NCLR his first summer and after law school. In his second summer, he clerked for Julian Burnside, a QC in Melbourne, Australia. He is admitted to practice in California.

In 2001, NCLR made history by becoming the first LGBT national organization to tackle the rampant homophobia and transphobia in sports with the launch of our Sports Project. Since the Project’s inception, NCLR has worked to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in sports at all levels of athletic competition. Under the leadership of Helen Carroll, the Sports Project has recently expanded its outreach by forming a coalition with national sports organizations that share similar goals of combating LGBT discrimination in sport.

On May 19th, Helen met with Dr. Pat Griffin, director of It Takes a Team, Ted Rdyka, director of the Sports Media Desk at GLAAD, and Laurie Priest, Athletic Director of Mt. Holyoke College in New York City, to explore the many ways that these groups could work together to wage a public education campaign regarding these issues. The three groups are bringing diverse perspectives and approaches to combating these problems. It Takes a Team is an educational program designed to end homophobia in sport. Dr. Griffin organizes panels and works with an array of colleges/universities and groups to educate people about LGBT athletes and coaches. GLAAD recently created the Sports Media desk to ensure that the stories of LGBT athletes, coaches, and sports reporters are included in media as a way to combat anti-gay prejudice in American sports culture. And NCLR’s Sports Project plan of action includes impact litigation, public policy and advocacy, free legal assistance, and public education. At the end of the day-long meeting, the groups had made plans to organize two panels within the next year to spread the word about their work and collaborate to promote effective action. NCLR’s supporters can look forward to sessions for LGBT student life professionals in colleges/universities around the country on ways to connect with their athletic department and panels and panels with athletic representatives in NCAA colleges and universities throughout the country.

Helen said of the meeting, “Having these three organizations with the input of an NCAA athletic director in collaboration strengthens all of our work as we can contribute and assist each other in our organization’s missions. This alliance will also help with the visibility of our programs and direct those LGBT sports persons in need of education, legal or media resources to the right place for immediate assistance.”