Pursuing a Career in Civil Rights & Public Service

Join us for a conversation with Vanita Gupta, Judge Dale Ho, and Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune ‘14, three panelists who have built remarkable public service and civil rights careers in varied ways. Come learn about how they got started, what has shaped their career trajectories, and what advice they have for law students interested in pursuing similar paths.

This event is sponsored by the Race & Law Clinic

Lunch provided. Please RSVP https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/01a08c88949175798c01eeae1de589a9

Open only to the HLS community.

If you require a disability-related accommodation, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.

JUDGE DALE HO
Dale Ho is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Prior to being appointed as a federal judge, he was the Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. In that capacity, he supervised the ACLU’s voting rights litigation nationwide, including arguing two cases before the United States Supreme Court. He is the first lawyer to be appointed as an Article III judge directly from the ACLU since Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the D.C. Circuit.
Prior to his work at the ACLU, Judge Ho was Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP; and a judicial law clerk, to Judge Barbara S. Jones, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and to Judge Robert S. Smith, at the New York Court of Appeals.
Judge Ho has served as an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, Brooklyn Law School, and New York Law School. He has published articles in law reviews including the Yale Law Journal Forum and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Judge Ho is the recipient of the 2020 Asian Law Alliance Legal Impact Award, and the 2019 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) President’s Award. In 2018, he was named to the New York City Charter Revision Commission. In 2017, he was named one of the best Asian American Lawyers under 40 by NAPABA. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Princeton University.

VANITA GUPTA
Vanita Gupta is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence and Director of the Center for Law and Public Trust at NYU Law. She also directs Nonprofits Together, an initiative she launched in 2025 to protect civil society organizations defending the rule of law and vulnerable communities. Gupta served as the 19th Associate Attorney General of the United States (2021–2024), the third ranking leader of the Justice Department, overseeing a dozen civil litigating and grantmaking divisions as well as initiatives on gun violence reduction, police reform, reproductive rights, and environmental justice. Previously, she was President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and served as the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s leader during the Obama administration. Earlier, she was deputy legal director at the ACLU and assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she helped overturn wrongful convictions in Tulia, Texas. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale College and NYU Law.

BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR RUTHZEE LOUIJEUNE
Boston City Councilor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune is working to build a just and equitable Boston. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, she was raised in Mattapan and Hyde Park, attended Boston Public Schools, and began civic work at 14 with MYTOWN. An experienced lawyer, she has represented families facing eviction, advanced voting rights before the U.S. Supreme Court, and served as senior attorney on Senator Warren’s presidential campaign. As Councilor At-Large, she fights for affordable housing, immigrant support, and racial equity. As former Council President, Ruthzee has advanced anti-displacement through the Acquisition Opportunity Program, codified the Office of Returning Citizens, and expanded civic participation through Ranked Choice Voting. She is Boston’s first Haitian American elected citywide and a proud graduate of Harvard and Columbia.