Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax will deliver the keynote address at Norfolk State University’s 102nd Commencement Ceremony scheduled for Saturday, May 5, 9 a.m. at William “Dick” Price Stadium.
Fairfax, elected November 7, 2017, is the second African-American in Virginia history to be elected lieutenant governor and the first African-American to be elected statewide in nearly 30 years. Former Governor L. Douglas Wilder was the first African-American to be elected Virginia Lieutenant Governor and the first African-American elected Governor in U.S. history.
Before his election, Fairfax, 38, served as a top commercial and white-collar criminal litigator in the Northern Virginia office of the law firm Venable LLP. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in the Major Crimes and Narcotics Unit of the Alexandria Division. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, he was appointed to serve as the Deputy Coordinator of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force. Prior to his service as a federal prosecutor, he worked as a litigator at WilmerHale LLP in Washington, D.C.
Fairfax’s also served a three-year term on the Duke University Board of Trustees, and he is currently serving his third three-year term on the Board of Visitors of the Duke University Terry Sanford School of Public Policy.
He earned his Juris Doctorate in 2005 from Columbia Law School and a degree in Public Policy Studies in 2000 from Duke University.