Bradley E. Heard

Bradley E. Heard is the deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Voting Rights Practice Group. He leads a dynamic team of attorneys, analysts, and advocates committed to carrying out the SPLC’s mission to protect democracy by ensuring fair and equal access to the ballot box for historically disenfranchised communities of color — particularly those communities in the Deep South.

Heard is an experienced civil rights litigator with more than 25 years of experience practicing law in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts. He comes to the SPLC after serving more than a decade as a trial attorney in the Voting Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Before he became a voting rights lawyer, his practice focused on employment law.