Justice Connection to Offer Pro Bono Support for DOJ Workers (1)

An organization created to help Justice Department workers will connect agency employees and alumni with pro bono services if they’re facing legal challenges related to their work for the government.

Justice Connection’s new legal network, announced Wednesday, comes in response to the Trump administration’s attacks on the federal workforce, including mass layoffs of civil servants across the federal government. The White House has also sought to retaliate against lawyers and law firms that worked on causes that conflict with the administration’s agenda.

Through the network, trained former Justice Department lawyers will volunteer to represent current and recent former employees in employment disputes and in criminal or congressional investigations, according to Justice Connection.

Stacey Young, founder and executive director of Justice Connection, said the pro bono representation network was part of her original idea when founding Justice Connection, after she realized there wouldn’t be enough federal sector lawyers and specialists to represent DOJ employees who need it.

“Some of these cases take years, and it’s especially hard to afford a lawyer when you’ve just lost your salary. And given how tight the job market is, it can be cost prohibitive to find representation when you need it the most,” Young said.

Young launched Justice Connection in January, after spending nearly two decades as an attorney for the Justice Department’s civil division and civil rights division. The organization aimed to connect current and former DOJ employees with department alumni who can offer legal services and other support.

Roughly 60 lawyers have volunteer to offer pro bono services so far, according to Young.

Melanie Proctor, an employment lawyer, said in an interview she was moved to volunteer to help current and former DOJ employees pro bono after experiencing uncertainty herself when she left the Justice Department in 2017, after 14 years at the agency.

Proctor said she used to think she’d spend her career with the federal government, but decided to leave after seeing actions by the first Trump administration, including its travel ban against Muslim-majority nations, that she didn’t want to defend in court.

“The reason why people work in public service is because there are these norms and these institutions that are supposed to protect justice and fairness,” Proctor said. “They’re watching that crumble, and it’s really hard to know where to go.”

Pam Hicks, who was fired in February as chief counsel of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is also making her firm available as a “phone-a-friend” resource for lawyers volunteering their time for these cases. Hicks recently co-founded her own firm, DC Law Collective, which specializes in representing federal workers across the government in employment matters.

Hicks said she brings “a lot of determination and a lot of empathy” to the role, given her personal experience being fired during this administration.

“We’re all kind of in this together at this point,” Hicks said. “It’s an opportunity for us to continue to build what we’re trying to do most of all, which is help people and to align with an organization that’s doing really good work.”

The second Trump administration has prompted an exodus of career federal employees, including those who have been forcibly reassigned or fired and those who took deferred resignation offers previously spearheaded by Elon Musk’s government efficiency unit.

The Justice Department’s civil rights division, which enforces anti-discrimination laws, has lost more than two-thirds of its career attorneys. Other DOJ career lawyers forced out include top national security lawyers, the chief of the professional misconduct office, and the former pardon attorney.