Washington D.C. – Democracy Forward – a leader in the work to protect people in the United States from accelerating threats to their rights – is growing again, with four new staff members joining the team to add capacity to the organization’s operations and launch a new, innovative program. The group today announced the hiring of four attorneys, Lara Finkbeiner, Sean Ouellette, Regan Rush, and Megan Marks. Finkbeiner and Ouellette join Democracy Forward’s growing litigation team, and Rush and Marks will lead a new initiative, Red Line for Civil Rights, which is an oversight and accountability project that tracks, documents, and explains changes in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division’s enforcement, providing the public with a clear, fact-based record of how the Trump-Vance administration has dismantled, repurposed, and politicized enforcement.
“Over the past year, people in this country have fought to protect their rights and the rights of their neighbors through court action and essential work in communities across the nation. Democracy Forward continues to work tirelessly to ensure that people have access to the courts in this time, and we are thrilled to build our bench of exceptional litigators as we work to bring about a reimagined democracy that delivers for all people, not just some,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The courts remain a frontline in the effort to ensure the American people’s rights are protected and that when the Trump-Vance administration abuses its power – or abandons critical cases and investigations – it is held accountable. We are pleased that exceptional lawyers continue to join our team as we grow the scope and reach of our impact.”
Since Inauguration, Democracy Forward has served as a critical bulwark against the unconstitutional actions that we are seeing the Trump-Vance administration take, filing more than 400 legal actions and securing more than 100 victories that directly protect Americans from harmful policies. Democracy Forward 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 team members joining Democracy Forward include:
Lara Finkbeiner, who joins Democracy Forward as the group’s new Deputy Managing Attorney. Prior to joining Democracy Forward, Lara served in several positions at the International Refugee Assistance Project, including as the Deputy Legal Director and most recently as the Director of Global Pro Bono. Lara has also worked as the Public Interest Director at Michigan Law School, a Visiting Clinical Lecturer at Yale Law School, an United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees deployee in Guantanamo and the Bahamas, and as a Fulbright scholar in Ecuador. She is currently serving as a Lecturer in the University of Michigan’s Program in International and Comparative Studies. Lara received her B.A. in History with Honors from the University of Michigan in 2008, her M.Sc. in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford in 2010, and her J.D. cum laude from Michigan Law School in 2013.
Sean Ouellette joins Democracy Forward as a Senior Counsel. Previously, Sean was a senior attorney at Public Justice, where he litigated cases about civil rights in schools and access to justice. Before that, Sean was a senior litigation counsel at the law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, where he litigated civil rights cases and class actions on behalf of workers and students. Sean graduated from Harvard Law School and Harvard College, and clerked for Judges O. Rogeriee Thompson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Mark L. Wolf of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and Lawrence E. Kahn of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Regan Rush will serve as the Director and Editor-in-Chief of Red Line for Civil Rights, a project of Democracy Forward. Previously, Rush served more than 15 years at DOJ, where she held senior leadership roles in the Civil Rights Division, most recently as Chief of the Special Litigation Section. She led nationwide investigations and litigation addressing systemic civil rights violations, including in policing, corrections, juvenile justice, and disability rights, and played a central role in advancing the division’s community integration enforcement strategy for people with disabilities. Prior to her government service, Regan worked in nonprofit legal advocacy and private practice, including as a Supervising Attorney at the Mental Health Advocacy Project in San Jose, California, and as an attorney representing employees in civil rights and employment discrimination matters at a Maryland law firm. Regan earned her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and her B.A. from Indiana University.
Megan Marks will be the Deputy Director and Managing Editor of Red Line for Civil Rights, a project of Democracy Forward. Before joining Red Line for Civil Rights, Megan spent nine years at DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. She began her career through the Attorney General’s Honors Program and most recently served as a Deputy Chief of the Special Litigation Section, where she supervised attorneys and helped shape enforcement strategy. She led the Section’s Police Practice Group, overseeing high-profile investigations, litigation, and enforcement work addressing systemic misconduct by law enforcement agencies nationwide. Her work also addressed systemic civil rights violations in correctional facilities. Megan earned her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership and was named a Heyman Fellow, a distinction awarded to graduates committed to federal public service.
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.
