Harmeet Dhillon: All about the Indian-American lawyer who’s Donald Trump’s pick for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights

US President-elect Donald Trump nominated Chandigarh-born Harmeet K Dhillon as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice. Dhillon is the latest Indian-American to be appointed to the Trump 2.0 cabinet after Dr Jay Bhattacharya, Head of National Institutes of Health, Vivek Ramaswamy who will lead the Department of Government Efficiency along with Elon Musk, and Kashyap 'Kash' Patel, Director of FBI.

Trump announced Dhillon’s appointment on his social media platform, Truth Social. He lauded Harmeet for consistently protecting civil liberties and taking on Big Tech for censoring free speech, “representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers”. 

The President-elect called Harmeet Dhillon one of the top election lawyers in the country, who has fought to ensure that only legal votes are counted. 

“Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community. In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY,” he said in his announcement, while congratulating her.

Dhillon responded to Trump’s announcement and said that it has been her dream to serve the country. 

WHO IS HARMEET DHILLON?

Born in Chandigarh, Dhillon, 54, moved to the United States along with her parents as a child.

Dhillon attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for her high school education. She pursued a BA degree in Classical Literature from Dartmouth College, followed by a law degree from the University of Virginia. 

In 1993, Dhillon joined Paul V Niemeyer, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit as a law clerk, after which she worked as an associate in Shearman & Sterling from 1994-1998. She served as an associate in law firms such as Sidley & Austin, and Cooley Godward from 1998 to 2002. 

Dhillon was Of Counsel in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe from 2003 to 2004, where she represented corporate and executive clients in antitrust, securities, regulatory and white collar crime matters.

She founded the Dhillon Law Group Inc has been the Managing Partner of the firm since 2004, where she continues to work as a trial lawyer focusing on business litigation, intellectual property litigation, founder and executive disputes, employment litigation, defamation, anti-SLAPP, First Amendment, internet privacy and consumer class action matters. 

Dhillon had unsuccessfully run for the position of Republican National Committee chairmanship last year.