Eric Dreiband
Partner, Jones Day; Former Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice
2021
Eric Dreiband is a partner at Jones Day, where he represents clients in investigations, litigation, and counseling in civil rights, employment discrimination, whistleblower, wage and hour, and other matters. Dreiband served as the 18th Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and he also served as the 12th General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Under Dreiband’s leadership, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division set enforcement records for prosecutions of law enforcement officers and sexual harassment, religious liberty, and servicemember cases; charged the highest number of hate crimes cases in decades; significantly expanded resources for human trafficking prosecutions; prosecuted race and other forms of illegal discrimination in education, employment, housing, lending, and voting; reached historic disability rights settlements with several states; opposed unlawful COVID-19-related civil liberty restrictions; and successfully litigated to protect the Constitutional and civil rights of all people in the United States.
During Dreiband’s tenure at DOJ, the Civil Rights Division and its United States Attorney partners prosecuted a white supremacist who killed one person and injured dozens of others in Charlottesville, Virginia; an arsonist who burned African American churches; individuals who burned crosses to threaten African American citizens; a man who allegedly murdered 23 individuals and attempted to kill dozens more because they were Hispanic; violent, racially-motivated neo-Nazis who targeted with violence and threats of violence journalists writing about anti-Semitism; individuals who targeted gay men for robbery, carjacking, and kidnapping; two men who allegedly shot and killed two transgender individuals; and violent attacks and murders against Jewish worshipers.
It is a tragic reality that hateful ideology has found fertile ground online and offline, with consequences affecting not only Americans but people around the world. We cannot stand idle in the face of bias, bigotry, and extremism. Together, at the Eradicate Hate Summit and beyond, the collective will of individuals and organizations is needed to galvanize all people of good will to protect and defend our communities.
