Thomas E. Perez

Thomas Perez is currently the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. He previously served as the Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. From 2002 until 2006, Perez was a member of the Montgomery County Council. He was the first Latino ever elected to the Council, and served as Council President in 2005. Earlier in his career, Perez spent 12 years in federal public service. As a federal prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the Department’s most high profile civil rights cases. Perez later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. Perez also previously served as Special Counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy’s principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, Perez served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Perez was a law professor for six years at University of Maryland School of Law and later as a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health. He is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.