Bonnie I. Robin-Vergeer, Esq., serves as a Deputy Chief in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She has spent more than seven years in the Division litigating civil and criminal appeals in the U.S. courts of appeal and the Supreme Court to enforce civil rights laws in such areas as employment discrimination, disability rights, fair housing, voting rights, law enforcement misconduct, and hate crimes. Before then, she served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, where she provided legal advice to the White House, other Department components, and Executive Branch agencies on a range of complex legal issues.
Ms. Robin-Vergeer previously served as the Director of the Barbara McDowell Appellate Advocacy Project at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, where she handled appeals in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to advance the interests of low-income District residents. She also worked at the Public Citizen Litigation Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization, where she litigated cases at all levels involving consumer health and safety, open government, and the First Amendment. Ms. Robin-Vergeer engaged in policy work as a staff counsel for then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ms. Robin-Vergeer graduated magnum cum laude from Georgetown University and Stanford Law School, where she was named to the Order of the Coif. She received her Master of Laws in Advocacy from the Georgetown University Law Center. Following her legal studies, she clerked for the Honorable Stanley A. Weigel on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.