Today, the Brandeis Center congratulated Catherine Lhamon on being confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Senate confirmed Ms. Lhamon after President Obama nominated her earlier this year. Ms. Lhamon has a very extensive background in civil rights. Most recently, she served as the Director of Impact Litigation at Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm. Prior to that, Ms. Lhamon was at the ACLU of Southern California, where she practiced for a decade, eventually leaving as Assistant Legal Director. In an announcement, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Seth Galanter wrote “in those positions she has represented a broad cross section of Americans to protect fundamental rights on issues as varied as education reform, fair housing, and economic justice.” Lhamon has also taught at the Georgetown Law Center, specializing in Appellate Litigation, after having clerked for The Honorable William A. Norris of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Throughout her career, Catherine Lhamon’s main focus as been on education reform. Acting Assistant Secretary Galanter wrote: “Her most recent education suit challenged teacher layoffs that were imposed strictly on a seniority basis, which had a devastating effect on low-income students and students of color. The litigation resulted in a court-approved settlement that protected 75,000 kids annually.” Politico reported “Lhamon also worked on the Williams v. California case, a class-action lawsuit that forced the state to provide equal access to textbooks and other materials, qualified teachers and safe school buildings.” Her performance in cases such as these, a part of “Ms. Lhamon’s 17-year track record of success… earned her repeat accolades as one of her state’s top women lawyers, and as a lawyer of the year for civil rights. She was also named one of California’s Top 20 Lawyers Under 40 in 2007.” LDB President Kenneth Marcus commented, “We at the Brandeis Center work closely with the Office for Civil Rights in our fight against campus anti-Semitism, so we are glad to see that President Obama has selected a lawyer with a strong background in civil rights to lead the agency I led nearly a decade ago. Over the last few years, the Obama administration has repeatedly emphasized its commitment to protect Jewish students, and all other students, from unlawful discrimination. We look forward to working with Assistant Secretary Lhamon to reinforce our shared commitment to this goal.” Recently, the Education Department has taken steps to monitor religious harassment of public school students, responding to the Brandeis Center’s recommendation that OCR more vigorously protect the rights of all religious minorities.