Jill Habig

Jill Habig (LinkedIn) is an attorney and political strategist with experience in affirmative litigation, policy advocacy, and electoral campaigns. She is the CEO of Public Rights Project (PRP), a national nonprofit organization that helps local governments defend civil rights, stop abuses of power, and protect their communities in court and beyond.

Her legal career began in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she worked on the landmark trial challenging Proposition 8 to establish marriage equality in California. She then served as special counsel to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. In that role, Habig advised on key legal and policy issues spanning consumer fraud, health, education, human trafficking, and gender and LGBTQ+ rights. She also led the creation and launch of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Children’s Justice, managing civil rights investigations of school districts, child welfare departments, and juvenile justice systems. She later served as deputy campaign manager and policy director for Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate, then as policy director for her transition team.

Habig earned her JD from Yale Law School and her BA from Georgetown University, and she teaches state and local impact litigation at Berkeley Law. She has been named an Ashoka Fellow, Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow, and Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneur for her work building PRP.