Yolanda Coly

National Advisor/Special Assistant to the President

National Advisor/Special Assistant to Dr. Barbara Arnwine Esq and Good Trouble Voting Rights Institute

Yolanda serves as the Special Assistant to Dr. Barbara Arnwine Esq – Founder/President of The Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) out of Washington DC. She has also established herself as National Advisor. She is founder of Coly Advocacy LLC/Coly Alliance(ca/ca). Established in 2014, ca/ca aligns itself with national and international trade associations as well as advocacy groups, corporations, and law firms to ensure inclusion of ethnic minorities and women. Ms. Coly also serves as co-chair for “A Call To Action Canada” which supports Canadian in-house counsel in advancing inclusion in legal procurement and development. Previously, Yolanda Coly led the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, Inc. (“NAMWOLF”) for over a decade. In that role, she secured over two hundred Fortune 500 corporate partners and financial contributors, who commit 5% of their outsourced legal budget to minority and women owned law firms. Ms. Coly, while Managing Director of NAMWOLF, played an integral role in the creation of the “Inclusion Initiative,” which has helped generate over $1 billion for minority and women owned law firms. Ms. Coly’s personal dedication laid the foundation for respect, inclusion, and the retention of minority and women-owned law firms to a degree unimaginable years ago. In 2008, Ms. Coly was the recipient of the Vatican II Award for her distinguished service to society. In Canada 2012, she was the recipient of The Hinton J. Lucas International Award for promoting diversity. Ms. Coly’s passion for equality in the legal arena and her tireless efforts to lay the foundation for inclusion of minority and women attorneys is unsurpassed. Upon her semi-retirement in 2014, NAMWOLF presented her with the namesake-award, the “Yolanda Coly Advocacy Award.” The Yolanda Coly Award is conveyed to individuals for exceptional advocacy on behalf of NAMWOLF law firms.