The new group – labeled "The Center for Legal Innovation" – will operate under the umbrella of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law based in Washington, DC, as a natural expansion of the parent group's current civil right litigation efforts. The Brandeis Center reports that the team of nearly 20 lawyers and legal staff will litigate exclusively against antisemitism.
Richard Rosen is senior vice president for legal advocacy at The Brandeis Center. He tells AFN the firm wants to bolster the relatively small number of legal staff it now has.
"We are actively recruiting both senior lawyers as well as lawyers only a few years out of law school to be able to handle a much larger array of cases," he explains.
The Brandeis Center reports that since Hamas' October 7, 2023, terror attack against Israelis in Gaza, antisemitic incidents have "surged" across the U.S. In its campus work alone, Brandeis has received a tenfold increase in requests for legal support since the attack.
Rosen says with President Trump's recent executive actions (here and here), it is hoped the government will be more aggressive in enforcement efforts.
"The goal is to get university administrators to take the problem seriously and to change their policies and procedures to protect Jewish students from discrimination from harassment so that they have the same educational opportunities that everybody else is guaranteed," the senior VP adds.
Rosen says the Center also plans to tackle antisemitism in the workplace and will be partnering with outside law firms to handle the additional load.
