home
Access Recording

Complimentary Briefing

A Conversation with Catherine Lhamon

Speakers

Catherine LhamonCatherine E. Lhamon is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, where she has served since the United States Senate confirmed her in October 2021 following President Biden’s nomination for her in May 2021. From January through October 2021, Assistant Secretary Lhamon served as Deputy Assistant to President Biden for Racial Justice and Equity, where she managed the President's equity policy portfolio.  From December 2016 until January 2021, she chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to which President Obama appointed her. She also served in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Cabinet as Legal Affairs Secretary from January 2019 through January 2021. Before these roles, Lhamon had also been Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, to which President Obama nominated her and the Senate confirmed her in 2013. In addition to her government service, Lhamon has litigated civil rights cases at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, National Center for Youth Law, and Public Counsel Law Center. Earlier in her career, Lhamon taught federal civil rights appeals at Georgetown University Law Center in the Appellate Litigation Program and clerked for the Honorable William A. Norris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In 2023, Disability Rights California honored Lhamon with their National Leadership Award.  YaleWomen honored Lhamon with their Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in 2019 and the Feminist Majority Foundation and Ms. Magazine gave Lhamon their Wonder Women Award in 2018.  In 2016, Politico Magazine named Lhamon one of Politico 50 Thinkers Transforming Politics and the National Action Network honored Lhamon with their Action & Authority Award.  In 2015, Yale Law School named Lhamon their Gruber Distinguished Lecturer and the Association of University Centers on Disabilities awarded Lhamon their Special Recognition Award.  Chronicle of Higher Education named Lhamon to their 2014 Influence List as the Enforcer.  The Daily Journal listed her as one of California’s Top Women Litigators in 2010 and 2007, and as one of the Top 20 California Lawyers Under 40 in 2007.  In 2004, California Lawyer magazine named Lhamon Attorney of the Year for Civil Rights. 

Lhamon received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was the Outstanding Woman Law Graduate, and she graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College. 


Danielle Conley

Danielle Conley is a partner in the White Collar Defense & Investigations practice in the Washington DC office of Latham & Watkins. Her practice focuses on representing educational institutions, companies, and other large organizations in high-stakes government investigations and enforcement matters, sensitive internal investigations, and other matters that involve substantial reputational risk.  Danielle has extensive experience conducting internal investigations in response to reported allegations of sexual misconduct and race and gender-based discrimination, and she has led numerous internal reviews and risk assessments on racial and gender equity issues. She also routinely counsels clients on best practices for developing and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.  

Before joining Latham, Danielle served as Deputy Counsel to President Biden in the White House Counsel’s Office where she advised the President, Vice President, and other senior White House officials on a wide array of domestic policy and civil rights issues, including voting and democracy, policing and criminal justice reform, and gender equity issues including Title IX and reproductive rights. Among other high-profile efforts, she helped shepherd Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination to the US Supreme Court. During the Obama administration, Danielle served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the US Department of Justice where she advised the Deputy Attorney General on civil rights policy issues and managed some of DOJ’s most significant civil rights litigation and enforcement matters.