Landmark Exec Linda G. Howard ’73 To Speak to Grads

Linda G. Howard, vice president for legal at Landmark Worldwide, will serve as commencement speaker May 19 at the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a 1973 alumna of the Law School.

San Francisco-based Landmark Worldwide is an international personal and professional growth, training and development company. Howard joined Landmark in 2010 as assistant general counsel and later served as general counsel.

At UVA Law, Howard was the first black person and first woman to become student council president.

“Linda Howard is someone who not only has dedicated her career to serving the community, but also someone who, during her time at UVA, strove to build a better community from within,” said Frances Fuqua ’19, president of the Student Bar Association, which invites the commencement speaker each year. “That message — that everyone belongs and deserves to have a voice — is timeless and is one that we think resonates with every member of this law school, regardless of their background or where they are headed after graduation.”

Howard’s career has ranged from serving in federal and local government positions to academia, writing and the corporate world. After law school, she served as staff attorney and special assistant to the general counsel of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation, and as a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.

She then turned to academia, first as an assistant and tenured associate professor of law at Ohio State University, where she taught evidence, sex-based discrimination, legislation and legislative process, and then as counsel to the president of Hunter College of the City University of New York. In 1980, she took leave from Ohio State to work in the White House as executive director of the Interdepartmental Task Force on Women.

As an executive for the New York City Law Department from 1990-2003, Howard oversaw attorney hiring and continuing legal education, and also developed and conducted sexual harassment training. She authored “The Sexual Harassment Handbook” in 2007 based on her experiences.

“We are simply thrilled that Linda Howard will serve as our commencement speaker,” said Dean Risa Goluboff. “From her pioneering days here at the Law School all the way through her career, Linda has forged her own path. She has so much wisdom, experience and inspiration to offer our students as they begin their own careers.”

Howard received her B.A. in math from Reed College in 1971.