Washington, D.C. – A new group of experienced attorneys are joining Democracy Forward’s litigation team, adding to the pro-democracy legal organization’s ability to protect people in the United States from accelerating threats to their rights. The five new attorneys – Senior Legal Advisor Ron Fein, Senior Counsels Laura Bakst, Gregory Cumming, and Andrea Matthews, and Counsel Briana Clark – each bring valuable experience as both frontline litigators and leaders in senior roles in government and the nonprofit sector in past leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and American Oversight.
Since Inauguration, Democracy Forward has played a leading role in inspiring courage and in protecting people in America from harmful and unlawful federal executive action, including securing an nationwide order stopping the freeze on funding and essential services, opposing executive actions that undermine diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, protecting due process, blocking the detainment of unaccompanied migrant children, blocking attempts to withhold federal funds for public schools and direct service providers for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, opposing attempts to politicize our nation’s non-partisan civil service, and preventing the shut down of media outlets like the Voice of America. The organization has filed more than 400 legal actions since January 2025, launched hundreds of investigations, and, through its Democracy2025 initiative, has organized the largest, most successful affirmative litigation effort against executive branch excesses in United States history.
“It is more important now than ever that we build on the success we have seen in courts as they have become the frontline in the fight against unlawful abuses of the Trump-Vance administration’s power. As more people are finding the courage to defend their rights, we have seen a skyrocketing litigation docket across the courts landscape. The knowledge and perspective these exceptional litigators add to our team will help us continue to expand Democracy Forward’s ability to protect people and communities from the constant flood of harmful actions pouring out of this administration,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward.
Democracy Forward nearly doubled its litigation team in the past 15 months. The team litigates cases at all levels from federal district courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in state and local courts across the nation. These successes led The Atlantic to call the group “the single largest source of Trump’s legal troubles.”
New attorneys joining Democracy Forward include:
Ron Fein as Senior Legal Advisor. Before joining the organization, Ron was Chief Counsel at American Oversight, where he led legal strategy using federal and state transparency laws to expose and challenge government misconduct. Before that, he served for a decade as Legal Director at Free Speech For People, litigating and advocating nationwide on government accountability, campaign finance, election protection, and constitutional democracy, and earlier as Assistant Regional Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England office, where he received EPA’s National Gold Medal for Exceptional Service. Ron clerked for Judge Kermit Lopez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Judge Douglas Woodlock of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Laura Bakst as Senior Counsel. Most recently, Laura was a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights where she litigated cases to protect and expand reproductive healthcare access. Before that, Laura served as a trial attorney for the Federal Programs Branch at the DOJ, defending high-profile challenges to federal statutes and agency actions across a range of issues, including gun control, religious freedom, and reproductive healthcare. Laura is a recipient of the DOJ Civil Division Special Commendation Award and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Honor Award. She also previously practiced at Williams & Connolly and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as well as the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Gregory Cumming as Senior Counsel. Before joining the organization, Greg was a Senior Trial Attorney with the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Natural Resources Section. There, he litigated high-profile challenges to federal agency actions in district courts around the country, worked on complex actions in the Court of Federal Claims seeking significant monetary and class-wide relief, and helped to coordinate strategy across agencies on major regulatory matters and cross-cutting legal issues. Prior to working at DOJ, Greg served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia where he focused on constitutional challenges to District policies and regulations, and worked in private practice on healthcare and Medicaid-related litigation brought against state agencies.
Andrea Matthews as Senior Counsel. Prior to joining Democracy Forward, Andrea was senior counsel and most recently Assistant General Counsel for Litigation at the CFPB, where she was a member of the agency’s defensive and appellate litigation team. Andrea also previously served as an advisor to the CFPB’s director, where she counseled senior agency leadership on questions of law, policy, and strategy across all of the CFPB’s tools. Andrea also litigated violations of federal consumer financial law in the CFPB’s Office of Enforcement, which she joined as an Honors Attorney.
Briana Clark as Counsel. Prior to joining Democracy Forward, Briana served as a civil rights prosecutor in the Criminal Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRT). In that role, Briana investigated and prosecuted some of the most serious offenses committed by law enforcement officers across the country, including sex trafficking, sexual assault, aggravated assault, attempted murder, and in-custody deaths. She also investigated and prosecuted hate crimes, including shootings and beatings committed by individuals who targeted victims based on their protected identity. During her time at CRT, Briana also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney where she prosecuted sexual assault and domestic violence cases within the District of Columbia. Before joining CRT, Briana clerked for the Honorable Patricia A. Millett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Honorable Gary S. Feinerman on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
More information about Democracy Forward’s team is available at https://democracyforward.org/about/team.
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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
