Harmeet Dhillon, a successful trial lawyer in California and a top California state Republican operative is the front-runner for the position of chief of the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department. She is the first woman and Indian-American to represent her state in the national Republican Party, if selected for the post would replace Vanita Gupta, another Indian-American who had held the post in the second term of the Obama administration.
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Dhillon had received national recognition when she covered her head with her shawl and said a Sikh prayer at the Republican Party Convention where President Donald Trump was anointed as the candidate for the White House.
Dhillon has received numerous awards as a top lawyer, including the Northern California Super Lawyer in business litigation by Thomson West Publishing, an accolade reserved for the top 5% of lawyers in the jurisdiction.
She had previously served at the Justice Department before starting her private practice and is credited with growing GOP support in the heavily Democratic state. As an Indian-American delegate from California, Dhillon had delivered the invocation to start the second day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016. Dhillon is remembered for delivering a Sikh prayer in Gurmukhi.
Born in Punjab, Dhillon came to the United States as a small child with her family. She attended public schools in North Carolina, where her father started his medical practice and she has graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. She has majored in Classical Studies at Dartmouth College, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. She did law at the University of Virginia Law School.
She has served as Vice Chair of the California Republican Party for three years before becoming the first woman-of-color ‘National Committee woman’ to the Republican National Committee on May 1, 2016, when the California GOP elected her at the state convention. Dhillon became the first Indian-American on the RNC and promised to stir things up during her four-year stint at the high table.
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Dhillon has considerable experience by having represented a range of clients in state and federal courts and administrative tribunals, from e-Commerce leaders, private companies, entrepreneurs, celebrities, film and music artists, authors, advertising executives, franchisees, public utilities, educational institutions and nonprofits. She has also won numerous awards and recognition for her pro bono legal work on behalf of domestic violence survivors, religious discrimination plaintiffs and political refugees. Her experience encompasses securities, entertainment, employment discrimination and civil rights matters.
By Premji
