Announcement Comes After Organization Hired a Number of High Profile Department of Justice Officials 

Washington D.C. – As Democracy Forward continues to lead in the work to protect against the harmful effects of the Trump-Vance administration’s agenda and Elon Musk’s destructive influence on the federal government, including active litigation against efforts to undermine the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the organization announced today that it had expanded its staff with several former CFPB employees. New staff include: former Deputy General Counsel at CFPB Steven Bressler, who will serve as Senior Legal Advisor; former Assistant General Counsel for Litigation at CFPB Kristin Bateman, who will serve as Senior Counsel; former CFPB Assistant General Counsel for Oversight Julia Szybala, who will serve as Interim Director for Oversight and Engagement; and former CFPB senior enforcement attorney Johanna Hickman, who will serve as Senior Counsel. 

The new staff join other former CFPB staff, including Senior Counsels Mark Samburg and Kevin Friedl, and Legal Oversight Assistant Hesu Song. 

“Democracy Forward is committed to ensuring that the American people have representation in court, including on matters that affect kitchen table economics. The administration’s attempt to decimate the federal government’s consumer watchdog agency means that Americans’ pocketbooks will be less protected; our team at Democracy Forward remains committed to protecting the American people and the addition of these talented professionals will help us do just that. We are incredibly excited to be adding lawyers who have dedicated their careers to protecting the American people from fraud and scams to our already deep bench of legal talent,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. 

Today’s news follows an announcement yesterday that Democracy Forward has added former top Justice Department officials and experienced career litigators as the administration sees a continued exodus of talented lawyers amid attacks on the judiciary and rule of law. 

Since January 20, Democracy Forward has filed 59 legal actions and launched 82 investigations, securing major wins and bringing together a unique coalition of more than 500 organizations to address this Administration’s harmful policies impacting the American people. The organization’s staff have also frequently appeared on tele-townhalls across the nation, speaking with hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans and touching the lives of millions as the organization’s robust work in states and local communities continues. 

Steven Bressler joins Democracy Forward as a Senior Legal Advisor after serving as Deputy General Counsel at CFPB, where he led all appellate, amicus, and defensive litigation work, including, with the Solicitor General, successful defense of the agency’s funding statute in the U.S. Supreme Court, and supervised responses to congressional oversight. He previously served at the DOJ in a variety of roles including Senior Trial Counsel in the Federal Programs Branch, where he litigated dozens of constitutional, administrative, national security, health care, and employment law cases; Chief of Staff in the Office of Legal Policy; and on detail to President Obama’s White House Counsel’s Office. He clerked for the Honorable Norma L. Shapiro on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and, earlier in his career, was Senior Legislative Assistant to then-U.S. Representative Bernie Sanders. 

Kristin Bateman joins Democracy Forward as a Senior Counsel, most recently having served as Assistant General Counsel for Litigation at the CFPB, where she helped lead the team of lawyers responsible for the agency’s defensive, appellate, and amicus litigation. Kristin joined the CFPB just after its founding in 2011 and handled some of the agency’s highest-profile cases, including multiple separation-of-powers challenges to the agency that were ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court. Other work included successfully defending CFPB regulations and enforcement actions in district courts and courts of appeals, beating back constitutional attacks on consumer-protection statutes, and advancing the CFPB’s views on novel statutory interpretation questions. Kristin clerked for Judge Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Julia Szybala joins Democracy Forward as Interim Director for Oversight and Engagement, coming off a decade at the CFPB, where she most recently served as Assistant General Counsel for Oversight. In her time at the Bureau, Julia managed the agency’s responses to investigations and oversight inquiries from Congress, the Government Accountability Office, and the Inspector General, and helped agency leaders across multiple administrations navigate complex legal and policy issues with an emphasis on transparency, accountability, and good governance. Julia began her career in private practice, where she focused on regulatory compliance and internal investigations. 

Johanna Hickman joins Democracy Forward as a Senior Counsel after serving as a senior enforcement attorney at the CFPB. In her previous role, Johanna investigated and litigated violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act and other federal consumer financial protection laws. Prior to that, she practiced in the Public Client Practice Group at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, where she represented states and municipalities in complex consumer and Medicaid fraud investigations and enforcement actions and co-chaired the firm’s Hiring & Diversity Committee. Johanna also previously practiced at an Am Law 100 law firm, and she served for a decade as an adjunct faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center. Hickman clerked for Judge James I. Cohn of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

For more information about Democracy Forward and its staff, please visit democracyforward.org/team/. 

– # # # – 

Democracy Forward 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.