President nominates California attorney to lead civil rights office - by Kathryn Baron
Catherine Lhamon, director of impact litigation at Public Counsel Law Firm, is President Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Credit: Public Counsel Law Firm
President Barack Obama has tapped veteran California civil rights attorneyCatherine Lhamon to become the next Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education.
Lhamon has worked on groundbreaking educational equity cases during her 17-year career, including Williams v California, the class action lawsuit that resulted in the state being ordered to ensure that students in low-wealth schools had new textbooks, highly qualified teachers and safe and clean school buildings.
The Office for Civil Rights oversees and enforces implementation of laws prohibiting discrimination in education by sex, age, disability, race and ethnicity. The Office also investigates and resolves complaints and conducts its own investigations.
Lhamon is currently director of impact litigation at Public Counsel Law Center, a pro bono law firm based in Los Angeles that runs legal clinics and represents low-income clients in cases involving education, homelessness, children’s rights and immigrants’ rights.
Before joining Public Counsel in 2009, she worked for 10 years at the ACLU of Southern California
