Danielle Conley
Partner – Latham & Watkins
Description of field of expertise
Ms. Conley has significant experience conducting sensitive internal investigations following reported allegations of sexual misconduct and race- and gender-based discrimination, and has led multiple internal reviews and risk assessments on issues pertaining to racial and gender equity.
She also routinely counsels clients on best practices for developing and implementing anti-harassment compliance programs and corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Prior to joining Latham, Ms. Conley served as Deputy Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel. In that role, she advised the President, Vice President and other senior White House officials on a wide array of legal issues related to voting and democracy, policing and criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, tech accountability, and judicial nominations. She established and led the first-ever White House Counsel’s Office team dedicated to civil rights and advancing racial, gender, and LGBTQ equity. Under her leadership, the team worked closely with senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and agency general counsels on policy, regulatory, and litigation matters related to the administration’s equity agenda. Among other high-profile efforts, Ms. Conley helped shepherd Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination to the US Supreme Court.
Before that, Ms. Conley served as the deputy on the Biden-Harris Transition’s DOJ Agency Review Team. During the Obama administration, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ, where she provided strategic counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and other senior government officials on a wide range of litigation and policy issues and managed some of the agency’s most significant and high-profile civil rights enforcement matters. Prior to Ms. Conley’s government service, she was a partner in another international law firm’s Washington, D.C., office, where she led the firm’s Anti-Discrimination practice.
Ms. Conley shares Latham’s deep commitment to pro bono work and has represented clients in cases involving complex issues of constitutional law, as well as in Voting Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, and Title VII actions.
Ms. Conley is a Director of Graham Holdings Company. She has also previously served on several nonprofit boards, including for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Earlier in her career, she was a fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Ms. Conley has repeatedly garnered recognition for her work in the public and private sector, including from the National Law Journal, the Washington Business Journal, the Diversity Journal, the Root, and Essence Magazine.