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Debra Katz & Lisa Banks
Debra Katz and Lisa Banks are founding partners at Katz, Marshall & Banks, a D.C. law firm that specializes in whistleblower cases, employment law, sexual harassment and discrimination, and civil rights and civil liberties matters. In the fall of 2018, Banks and Katz represented Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who Ford has accused of sexual assault.
Throughout their careers, Katz and Banks have proven themselves formidable allies to survivors of sexual assault, harassment and Title IX discrimination. Katz and Banks have represented sexual harassment victims in cases before Congress, as well as one of the four women who came forward with claims of physical assault against Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Katz also represented the Feminist Majority Foundation in a Title IX case that led to the groundbreaking ruling that universities have obligations under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution to investigate and take action to end sex-based harassment and threats targeting students on campus through social media.
Katz has been recognized as D.C.’s “Civil Rights Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers in America and a “Leading #MeToo Lawyer” by Washingtonian Magazine. Banks has been awarded “Lawyer of the Year” for Employment Law in D.C. by Best Lawyers in America.
Michele Dauber
Michele Dauber, a law professor at Stanford University, led the successful two-year campaign to recall former Judge Aaron Persky, after he sentenced Brock Turner to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Launched just days after Judge Persky’s sentencing, Dauber’s campaign won by a massive margin: 62 percent of voters were in favor of the recall, making Persky the first judge to be recalled in California in more than eight decades.
In September 2018, Dauber launched the Enough is Enough Voter Project, a national political action committee focused on making violence against women a decisive voting issue. Now the chair of the Enough is Enough board, Dauber is working to ensure politicians and elected officials who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct or abuse, or whose public record has supported rape culture, face consequences at the polls.