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Schedule

Panel One:
Voting Rights Law:
The 2023 Legislative Sessions in Context

Leading voting rights experts and advocates will highlight key trends and developments in voting rights and election law from 2023, including this year’s legislative sessions and critical court decisions. They will describe how this year fits into the context of broader pro- and anti-voting movements and how lawyers can get involved in pro-democracy work in 2024.

SPEAKERS

Yterenickia ‘YT’ Bell

Senior Director of And Still I Vote, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Yterenickia ‘YT’ Bell is currently the Senior Director, And Still I Vote for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Previously, she held the role of the National Organizing Director at Care in Action/National Domestic Workers Alliance supervising the state directors and program managers in seven core states, while developing electoral and legislative strategy for state and federal campaigns. Prior to that, she was the Director at the Progressive Governance Academy, a project between the State Innovation Exchange (SiX), Local Progress, and re: power to build and develop the leadership and governance skills of progressive state and local elected officials across the country. She was also the Deputy Director of a statewide public policy coalition table, Georgia Engaged (now America Votes Georgia), where she provided strategies and best practices for successful programmatic implementation.

She is a native Georgian and graduated from Georgia State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political Science and a Master’s in Social Work and Public Administration with a focus in Economic Development and Planning. Bell has worked as a social worker and public policy professional serving vulnerable communities and solving complex problems for over a decade. She is also a Councilwoman in the City of Clarkston, Georgia.

Julie Houk

Managing Counsel, Election Protection, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Julie Houk joined the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law as a Senior Special Counsel in the Voting Rights Project in May 2014 and began her current role as Managing Counsel for Election Protection in October 2018.

Since joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Julie’s focus has been on voting rights litigation and election protection work that has sought to ensure equal access to the ballot box for all voters, and in particular, for voters of color.

Julie has helped to lead litigation teams in challenges to discriminatory voter purges and voter caging; burdensome and illegal voter registration requirements; minority vote dilution; and unconstitutional gerrymanders. She has also helped to lead advocacy efforts with state partners on legislation and local government actions impacting voting rights.

Julie received a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science and an M.A. in Political Science from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her J.D. from the Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, California. Julie is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Illinois (registered as voluntarily inactive in Illinois). Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Julie spent over 29 years litigating civil rights cases in California.

Bar Admissions: Admitted in California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Court Admissions: Admitted to the US Circuit Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits, and the US District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California, and Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.

Rhyane N. Wagner

National Policy Manager, Black Voters Matter

Rhyane N. Wagner is the National Policy Manager for Black Voters Matter.

Rhyane has 15 years of electoral and social justice work experience in the Deep South. She previously served as the Florida Senior State Organizing Manager for Black Voters Matter Fund. 

Rhyane graduated with a master's degree in Global Strategic Communications from Florida International University Biscayne Bay in 2011. Rhyane most recently completed her Power & Influence For Social Impact certification with Harvard Business School.

Moderator: Professor Spencer Overton

Professor of Law, George Washington University

Spencer Overton is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law at George Washington University and has researched, published, and taught extensively on democracy and race. He also directs the GW Equity Institute’s Multiracial Democracy Project, which serves as a bridge between scholars, policymakers, civil rights organizations, and democracy groups to tackle challenges like racialized disinformation, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. He is currently working on research projects related to the regulation of AI to facilitate a well-functioning multiracial democracy and the implications of alternative voting systems for multiracial democracy.

Spencer held several senior leadership roles during the Obama campaign, transition, and Administration. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he led over 140 experts as chair of the campaign’s Government Reform Policy committee. On the transition, he chaired the Election Assistance Commission Agency Review Team, served on the Federal Election Commission Agency Review Team, and helped write the Administration’s ethics guidelines while serving in the office of the General Counsel. During the Administration, he was appointed as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and partnered with other senior officials in leading the Administration’s democracy policy efforts related to the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Administration’s response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited corporate spending in federal elections.

Spencer’s work on the Jimmy Carter-James Baker Commission laid the groundwork for modern arguments against unnecessary voting restrictions. As a member of the DNC Presidential Nomination Scheduling Commission, he led an effort that resulted in Iowa restoring voting rights to over 80,000 returning citizens. He was also part of a group of commissioners that worked to successfully move more diverse states like South Carolina and Nevada to the beginning of the modern Democratic presidential primary process, which would later have significant implications in selecting the Democratic nominee in 2008 (Barack Obama) and 2020 (Joseph Biden).

From 2014-2023, Spencer served as the President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies—America’s Black think tank—where he rebuilt the organization and worked closely with civil rights groups, the Congressional Black Caucus, and various other federal, state, and local policymakers to increase diversity among top political appointees and to devise and advance racially-equitable policies. Spencer has also served on the national boards of the American Constitution Society, the Center for Responsive Politics (Open Secrets), Common Cause, and Demos, and served as an advisory board member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Spencer practiced law at the firm Debevoise & Plimpton, clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon J. Keith, and graduated with honors from both Hampton University and Harvard Law School.

Panel Two:
Legal Landscape of Reproductive Rights Post-Dobbs

Leading reproductive justice experts and local abortion providers will reflect on the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision from each of their perspectives and the impact the ruling has had across the country. They will discuss how the abortion landscape has changed over the past couple of years and share specific actions lawyers can take to help protect reproductive rights.

SPEAKERS

Diane Horvath

Co-Founder, Partners in Abortion Care

Diane Horvath, MD, MPH, FACOG (she/her) is an OB/GYN with Complex Family Planning subspecialty training and the co-founder and chief medical officer of Partners in Abortion Care, an all-trimester abortion clinic in College Park, Maryland. Partners in Abortion Care is the only abortion clinic in the country co-owned by a physician/midwife partnership, and currently the only all-trimester clinic owned and operated by women. Diane has written and spoken extensively about abortion provider safety and her own experiences with anti-abortion harassment and violence. Her legal challenge to a former employer's restrictive policy on abortion advocacy was featured in multiple media outlets, including the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Kebé

Senior Legal Support Advocate, If/When/How

Kebé is an organizer, trainer, facilitator, and advocate working at the intersection of reproductive freedom and state violence. As Senior Legal Support Advocate with If/When/How, she strategizes access to legal support for people’s reproductive lives, through a racial justice lens. For the past six years, Kebé has helped advocates in the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement expand their work to include and destigmatize self-managed abortion in the US.

Previously, with the support of TGI Justice Project, Kebé has organized peer support for prisoners considered for parole and has co-edited a supplemental guide on parole support for transgender prisoners. With Black Youth Project 100, a national group of Black youth organizers leading in the movement for Black lives, she has strategized direct action to demand police accountability and uplift the stories of cis- and transgender Black women and girls killed by state and interpersonal violence. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University and is forever a student of Black feminist theory and thought leaders. She only has one name.

Lynn McCann-Yeh

Co-Director, Baltimore Abortion Fund

Lynn-McCann-Yeh is an advocate and movement builder, currently working as the Co-Director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund. With a decade-spanning career at public health and community-based nonprofits, Lynn has worked to strengthen organizational capacity, nurture communities of care, and deepen her understanding of intersectional and reproductive justice. In her role at the Baltimore Abortion Fund, Lynn has worked alongside a visionary team to steer the organization through a period of radical growth, adversity, and change. Her commitment to abortion access is grounded in her unwavering belief in each person’s right to control their body and future.

Porsha Pinder

Co-Director, Baltimore Abortion Fund

Porsha Pinder is a human-centered leader and a fierce champion for radical change. With over a decade of nonprofit leadership experience, Porsha excels in cultivating resilient teams, transforming organizational culture, and navigating challenges with clarity and innovation. Drawing inspiration from her lived experiences and lifelong commitment to dismantling oppressive systems, Porsha recognizes the urgent need to confront harmful and inequitable structures within reproductive health. Currently serving as the Co-Director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund, Porsha works alongside a dedicated community of staff, clients, and volunteers to ensure that every person has the agency and resources needed to live with autonomy and dignity.

Moderator: Anna Chu

Executive Director, We The Action

Anna Chu serves as the Executive Director for We The Action, an organization dedicated to advancing access to justice by connecting volunteer lawyers with nonprofit organizations in need of pro bono legal assistance. Lawyers have a unique ability to defend our nation’s values, protect our democracy, and help people facing their darkest moments, and We The Action is committed to making it easier for lawyers to apply their special skills to advance social good.

Prior to joining We The Action, Ms. Chu served as Vice President for Strategy and Policy at the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), shaping NWLC’s cross-cutting advocacy and policy work and leading its federal and state government relations strategy. Ms. Chu has also served as Vice President of Policy and Research at the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, Policy Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Policy Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Caucus. After attending the University of Southern California Law School, she began her career as a law clerk to former Chief Judge Jane A. Restani in her sittings before the U.S. Court of International Trade and in six different federal appellate courts, and then spent time as an attorney at Paul Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP.

Fireside Chat with
82nd Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder and Associate Attorney General of the United States Vanita Gupta

Moderated by Dana Remus, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP

Legal luminaries 82nd Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder and Associate Attorney General of the United States Vanita Gupta will share their insights on the biggest challenges facing the country today and the important role that lawyers play in creating a more democratic and equitable world.

SPEAKERS

Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Chairman, National Democratic Redistricting Committee

Eric H. Holder, Jr. serves as Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. Mr. Holder is an internationally recognized leader on a broad range of legal issues and a staunch advocate for civil rights. He served in the Obama Administration as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from February 2009 to April 2015, the third longest-serving Attorney General in U.S. history and the first African American to hold that office.

Under Mr. Holder’s leadership, civil rights, including voting rights, were a top priority at the Justice Department. Mr. Holder vigorously defended voting rights, including the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He criticized politically motivated voter ID laws that were designed to suppress minority and youth votes, and he led the Justice Department’s efforts to overturn these laws around the country.

Vanita Gupta

Associate Attorney General, Department of Justice

Vanita Gupta is the 19th United States Associate Attorney General and has served as the third-ranking official at the Department of Justice since her confirmation by the Senate on April 21, 2021. Associate Attorney General Gupta supervises the Department’s civil litigating divisions—the Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Antitrust Division, Tax Division, and Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Department’s grantmaking components—the Office of Justice Programs, Office on Violence Against Women, and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), as well as the Office for Access to Justice, Office of Information Policy, the Community Relations Service, the United States Trustees Program, and the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Associate Attorney General Gupta has been a leader in the Justice Department and across the federal government on issues ranging from building police-community trust to safeguarding reproductive freedom, increasing support for victims of gun violence and other crimes, promoting competition and economic opportunity, expanding community violence intervention programs, and more. She chairs the Justice Department’s Reproductive Rights and Opioid Epidemic Civil Litigation Task Forces and has convened a Tribal Issues working group to better coordinate the Justice Department’s Tribal work. She is spearheading the Department’s efforts to implement more than 90 deliverables from the President’s Executive Order on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing, and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety. She is leading the Department’s work to combat unjust and unlawful fines and fees practices, including a Dear Colleague letter released in April of 2023 and a best practices guide. She has been a champion for environmental justice initiatives, including the Department’s Comprehensive Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy and the new Office for Environmental Justice. She is also leading the effort to bring greater fairness and transparency to the Department’s process for handling student loan discharges in bankruptcy proceedings. 

Associate Attorney General Gupta previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest and largest coalition of non-partisan civil rights organizations in the United States.

Before serving in that capacity, from October 15, 2014, to January 20, 2017, she served as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Appointed by President Barack Obama as the chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States, Associate Attorney General Gupta oversaw a wide range of civil rights enforcement matters, including investigations of the Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago police departments; appeals of voter ID cases in Texas and North Carolina; the challenge to North Carolina’s HB2 law and other LGBTQ+ rights litigation; and actions to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious discrimination.

Prior to leading the Civil Rights Division, Associate Attorney General Gupta served as Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In addition to managing litigation, she created and led the ACLU’s Smart Justice Campaign, aimed at promoting bipartisan justice reform while keeping communities safe. She began her legal career as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.  

Associate Attorney General Gupta graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law, where later she taught a civil rights litigation clinic for several years.

Moderator: Dana Remus

Partner, Covington & Burling LLP, We The Action Advisory Council Chair

Dana Remus is a Partner at Covington & Burling LLP, where she advises clients on public policy issues, government regulatory enforcement trends, election and political law matters, congressional investigations, and ethics matters.

Dana joined Covington after serving as Assistant to the President and White House Counsel for President Biden. In this role, Dana led the administration’s efforts to confirm Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. In the first year of the administration, she also assisted President Biden in confirming more lower-court judges than any President since John F. Kennedy—the majority of whom are racially, ethnically, or gender diverse. As White House Counsel, Dana also advised on a range of matters and policy initiatives, including the administration’s COVID strategy; voting rights; high-profile congressional investigations, including the January 6th Committee; and immigration reform.

Prior to serving as White House Counsel, Dana led the Biden-Harris campaign’s legal team as General Counsel. In the Obama administration, she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel for ethics and following the administration, she served as General Counsel of the Obama Foundation and General Counsel of the personal office of President and Mrs. Obama.

Previously, she was a Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she specialized in legal and judicial ethics and the regulation of the legal profession. She also taught at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and as an inaugural faculty member at the newly established Drexel University College of Law.

Pro Bono Clinic:
Restoring Voting Rights For Returning Citizens 

with Sharon Madison and Orianna Simmons, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

PRESENTERS

Sharon Madison

Fines & Fees Manager, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

Sharon Madison possesses an Associate's Degree in Paralegal Studies from Jackson State Community College and serves as a Notary Republic for the State of Florida. As the Fines & Fees Manager at the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, she has held various leadership positions. Currently, Sharon collaborates with attorneys nationwide, conducting research to identify the legal and financial obligations that returning citizens must fulfill to reclaim their voting rights in Florida. Additionally, she supervises the Fines & Fees assistance program at FRRC. Sharon actively participates in several other organizations, including Disabled American Veterans, Safe Labor Initiative, ABATE, Real Talk Education Initiative, and the National Association of Black Legal Assistants Paralegals.

Orianna Simmons

Data and Targeting Specialist, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

Orianna Simmons is presently employed at the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition as a specialist in Data and Targeting. In her role, she is responsible for supervising the creation of new databases, monitoring their performance, and extracting meaningful insights from raw data to develop practical applications and feedback. Orianna takes pride in being an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida and is motivated to pursue a future in Civil Rights Law.

Pro Bono Clinic:
Voting Rights Research

with Leslie Proll, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

PRESENTER

Leslie Proll

Senior Director for Voting Rights, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Leslie Proll is the Senior Director for Voting Rights at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She helps lead the national voting rights coalition in working to strengthen our democracy by ensuring that all voters, regardless of race, ethnicity, language, or ability, can fully participate in the political process. She seeks to leverage the power of the diverse coalition at the national and state level to secure and strengthen voting rights protections in law and policy and support efforts around the country to protect the right to vote.

Leslie served as Director of the Departmental Office of Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Transportation under President Obama, where she advised the Secretary of Transportation on civil rights matters. For many years, she served as Policy Director of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, where she worked extensively on Congressional reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006 and on legislation responding to the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

Leslie began her civil rights career in Birmingham, Alabama. She litigated class actions and jury trials in the areas of voting rights, housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and higher education school desegregation. Leslie served as a law clerk to the late Chief Judge Sam Pointer, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. A native Californian, Leslie is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Davis School of Law.

Pro Bono Clinic:
Assistance for Afghans Seeking Asylum

with Jennie Guilfoyle and Chelsea Mack, VECINA

PRESENTERS

Jennie Guilfoyle

Legal Director, VECINA

Jennie Guilfoyle is VECINA's Legal Director. She was previously the Deputy Legal Director for the Immigration Justice Campaign at the American Immigration Council. Before joining the Council, she spent four years as an Attorney Adviser at the State Department in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, working on issues ranging from citizenship to intercountry adoption. Prior to that, she worked for many years as a Senior Training Attorney at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, designing and leading in-person and online trainings on a wide range of immigration law topics. She also worked at Church World Service, where she trained refugee resettlement programs on immigration law and program management. She began her legal career as an Equal Justice Works fellow at the New York Association for New Americans, where she represented asylum and VAWA applicants. She holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law. Jennie lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

Chelsea Mack

Mentoring Attorney for Afghan Projects, VECINA

Chelsea Mack is the Mentoring Attorney for Afghan Projects with VECINA. She joins VECINA after serving the immigrant population as an attorney with Brown Immigration Law handling a myriad of case types including asylum, family-based, citizenship, and removal defense. She began her legal career focusing on the prosecution of child sacrifice cases as a legal fellow with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in Kampala, Uganda in partnership with the Center for Global Justice housed within her alma mater, Regent University School of Law.

Legal Partnership of the Year Award Winner

Volunteer of the Year Award Winner

Debbie Cooper

Debbie Cooper is a distinguished leader in the fields of human and civil rights, international development, and democracy and the rule of law, boasting over twenty years of experience in both domestic and international arenas. Her expertise spans a wide range of critical issues, including voting rights and immigration, and their intersection with both racial and criminal justice.

Throughout her career, Debbie has excelled in numerous roles, including legislative and policy analysis, and developing comprehensive advocacy strategies for local, national, and international legislation and regulations. She has also been instrumental in forging strategic partnerships among nonprofit organizations, government entities, and the private sector. Debbie's professional journey includes extensive experience in election observation and voter protection, pro bono legal representation of asylum seekers in immigration detention, organizing in national political campaigns, and a stint in the U.S. government. She is a former litigation attorney and trained community mediator, and her work has taken her to various regions, including Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and South America.

Debbie Cooper's wealth of experience and dedication have made her an influential force in the fields of human and civil rights, and preserving and strengthening democracy and the rule of law in the U.S. and abroad.

We The Action Team

We The Action Advisory Council