The leader of the Department of Justice‘s Civil Rights Division issued a rallying cry this week for conservative lawyers to rethink their roles, not just within government but across the broader legal landscape, to defend people’s civil rights.“We’re at a fork in the road in the conservative movement,” Harmeet Dhillon declared at a Federalist Society conference in Washington, pointing to a critical choice for right-leaning lawyers: stick with the well-worn, lucrative path of Big Law defense work or step up to civil rights battles on behalf of ordinary people.
Harmeet Dhillon talks to reporters at the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Dana Point, Calif., Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“This long-standing career wisdom, which has essentially displayed itself as a tacit alignment with the defense bar, has in some ways really stifled the conservative movement’s ability to do the work needed to defend the rights of the most vulnerable in our nation,” she said.
Dhillon, a prominent San Francisco attorney who previously represented former President Donald Trump personally, described how her own career followed the “safe” path of clerking, joining elite firms, and making partner before launching her own practice. But she urged the next generation to think differently.
“We need people in roles who know how to do that work, who know how to bring cases as plaintiff lawyers, find facts, navigate statutes, think creatively, win a trial — not just litigate behind a desk or reach a settlement,” she said.
Since taking office last month, Dhillon has overseen a sharp shift in the division’s priorities, focusing federal civil rights enforcement on issues such as anti-Christian bias, campus antisemitism, and challenges to transgender participation in women’s sports — topics she said conservative lawyers too often leave to others. Yet, she emphasized, the need for conservative legal talent extends beyond the DOJ.
“When I came out of law school with my dream to do a career in civil rights, there was no law firm that would hire me to do that,” she said.
In response to a question from the Washington Examiner, Dhillon highlighted the importance of public engagement and private sector partnerships in civil rights enforcement.
“I love whistleblowers, and we do rely on whistleblowers to tell us these things, because there’s only so many lawyers,” she said. “I’m down by 50%, which will hopefully get fixed. But we need members of the public to tell us what’s happening.”
Dhillon noted that the civil rights division has various hotlines on the DOJ website and that she regularly hears from thousands of legal contacts, adding, “There are quite a few excellent lawyers who are members of this organization who are bringing compelling private suits.”
Dhillon emphasized that while the DOJ can sometimes file statements of interest, intervene, or add claims, private plaintiff-side lawyers are essential to doing the groundwork. “We absolutely are not the replacement of the private sector in this work. We have a partner in the private sector. We want to hear these cases,” she said, pointing out that smart plaintiffs’ lawyers are also analyzing where to bring impactful cases and being selective about jurisdiction.
Under Trump’s direction, the administration has issued executive orders and policy directives aimed at reshaping the legal landscape by pressuring major law firms to take on more plaintiff-side cases aligned with conservative priorities. These efforts, including targeted DOJ guidance and public warnings from senior administration officials, challenge Big Law’s traditional alignment with corporate defense work and encourage firms to actively pursue litigation on issues like religious liberty, free speech, and combating antisemitism.
HARMEET DHILLON UPENDS DOJ CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION IN SHIFT TOWARD CURBING ANTISEMITISM AND DEI
Dhillon praised Trump’s executive orders reshaping civil rights enforcement and called the moment a “generational opportunity” for conservative lawyers across the board to push forward a new legal culture. “I never thought I would see the day, but it’s just really time to be a plaintiff’s lawyer in the biggest law firm in America, the Department of Justice — and we’re just getting started,” she said.
While Dhillon noted that she has “more applicants than I can possibly hire right now,” her broader message was one of encouragement to the conservative legal community at large to seize this moment, inside or outside government, to advance a vision of civil rights grounded in conservative values.
