Breaking the Cycles of Poverty and Criminalization: Strategic Legal Services for Marginalized Communities

Join OPIA for a community discussion with Wasserstein Fellow Richard Saenz, as he discusses his career in the LGBTQ+ movement as an advocate for the rights of incarcerated people. Richard will share how litigation, policy advocacy, and community organizing can be powerful tools to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ bias in the criminal legal system. Learn how Richard centers the lives and stories of his clients—including when movement priorities have left them out—and how, as an openly gay, Latino, and the first in his family to go to law school, Richard’s life experiences have shaped his career as a public interest lawyer.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP below! Open to the HLS community.

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.

Richard Saenz is Counsel and the Criminal Legal System Strategist at Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV. He focuses his work on the criminal legal system, coordinating litigation and policy work on behalf of incarcerated people and against the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people. Richard is also the project manager and co-author of Protected & Served? 2022, Lambda Legal’s groundbreaking community survey on the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV with the criminal legal system. The report is available at www.ProtectedAndServed.org.

Richard has authored numerous amicus briefs throughout the federal court system concerning access to the courts, the rights of incarcerated people, and the availability of claims against prison systems. His legislative work includes coalition work on New York State’s Gender Identity Respect, Dignity, and Safety Act. He is part of the legal team defending California’s SB 132, The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, on behalf of intervenors. His work has been featured in the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Magazine, Washington Post, NBC News, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Advocate.

Richard received his Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law, where he was a Stein Scholar for Public Interest Law and Ethics. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.