Vanita Gupta is an experienced leader who has devoted her career to advancing civil and human rights, strengthening democratic norms, and building safe communities at national organizations and in the federal government.
Gupta is currently a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at NYU School of Law, where she teaches and advises students on a variety of topics including civil rights enforcement, leadership, and the intersection of public policy and law. In the summer and fall of 2024, she also served as a consultant to pro-democracy organizations working for a free and fair November election.
From 2021 to 2024, Gupta served as the 19th Associate Attorney General of the United States. Nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she was the first civil rights lawyer in a top three leadership position at the Department of Justice. As Associate Attorney General, she supervised 13 components of the Department: all of the civil litigating divisions (Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Antitrust Division, Tax Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division); the grantmaking offices (Office of Justice Programs, Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office)); and other offices (Office for Access to Justice, Office of Information Policy, Community Relations Service, U.S. Trustee Program, Foreign Claims Settlement Commission).
Gupta oversaw high profile litigation matters including settlements that provided historic compensation for victims of mass gun violence (Charleston AME, Parkland, and Sutherland Springs); that changed federal law enforcement policies during mass demonstrations (Lafayette Square cases); and that provided continued reunification and services for parents and children separated at the southwest border during the Trump administration, as well as limitations on family separations in the future (Ms. L v. ICE).
Other highlights of her tenure include: the negotiation and implementation of the President’s policing and criminal justice reform executive order, including creation of a DOJ accreditation regime for police departments and a first-ever national law enforcement accountability database; the after-action assessment of the law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas; leading the Justice Department’s efforts on reproductive rights after the Dobbs decision, civil litigation related to the opioids epidemic, Tribal justice, and environmental justice; expansion of the Department’s civil rights work, community violence intervention programs, and support for victims of gun violence and for law enforcement mental health and wellness.
Immediately prior to her time as Associate Attorney General, Gupta led the Leadership Conference on Civil Human Rights, the nation’s oldest and largest coalition of non-partisan civil rights organizations, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. She also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
With over one hundred staff members, she led major national campaigns on the 2020 census (CensusCounts.org), voting rights and election administration, federal courts, justice reform, police-community trust, and COVID relief. Under her leadership, the Leadership Conference Education Fund incubated a groundbreaking voting rights initiative, All Voting is Local, which works with state and local election administrators year-round to promote free and fair elections.