EDITORIAL REVIEW
Her “exempt organizations” practice is
the coolest, helping charities like Doctors Without
Borders and Robin Hood Foundation save lives.
—2008 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America
Built an impressive practice repping charitable institutions, including Doctors Without Borders.
—Lawdragon Magazine
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Victoria B. Bjorklund is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she heads the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Group.
She advises public charities, private foundations, boards, and donors.
In 2001, Ms. Bjorklund was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to serve as one of six exempt-organization members on
the IRS’s Tax Exempt/Government Entities Advisory Committee, and she served as Chair for 2004-2005. In June 2005, she
received the IRS Tax Exempt Division Commissioner’s Award for “ground-breaking service” to the Advisory Committee.
From 1989 through 2001, Ms. Bjorklund served as a director, secretary and still serves as
pro bono legal counsel for
Doctors Without Borders, the emergency medical relief organization that was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. She is also
a director of and
pro bono counsel for the Robin Hood Foundation. She is a director of the American Friends of the
Louvre, the Louvre Endowment, Friends of Fondation de France, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which gave her its Founders Award in 2010.
Ms. Bjorklund was named a David Rockefeller Fellow for 1997-1998 as a rising civic leader in New York City. She chaired the
ABA Tax Section Committee on Exempt Organizations from 2001 through 2003 and now serves as Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on
International Philanthropy. Ms. Bjorklund was honored in May 2002 as the ABA Tax Section “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year” in
recognition of her 9/11 work. She also accepted the “Pro Bono Firm of the Year” award from the NYS Bar Association in
recognition of the Firm’s 9/11 work. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York City and Lawyers Alliance of New
York, Inc. honored Ms. Bjorklund for her outstanding volunteer service in responding to the legal needs arising from
September 11. In 2003, she received the Commissioner’s Award, the highest honor the Commissioner of Internal Revenue can
bestow, for her “timely, creative and nimble response to 9/11’s unprecedented legal challenges.” In 2005, she received the
Assistant Commissioner’s Award for her contributions to the IRS Advisory Committee. In 2010, she was named a Power Woman by MOVES Magazine and awarded the Segal-Tweed Founders Award from The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Ms. Bjorklund speaks and writes frequently on exempt-organization subjects. Every year since 1989 she has spoken at the
ALI-ABA Charitable Giving Program on “Choosing Among Private Foundations, Supporting Organizations, and Donor-Advised
Funds,” a topic she also addresses at the annual Georgetown Conference. She is the co-author with Jim Fishman and Dan Kurtz
of
New York Nonprofit Law and Practice (LexisNexis, 2d Ed. 2007 and annual supplements). She also teaches a course in charities’ legal documents at Harvard Law School.
She earned her J.D. at Columbia University School of Law, a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University, and a B.A.
magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she graduated in three years and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Ms.
Bjorklund is a former Co-Chair of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee and now Co-Chair of its Diversity Committee.
