Jill Ellen Habig

Jill Habig is a former civil rights prosecutor and policy advisor to Kamala Harris, and the founder and president of Public Rights Project (PRP). PRP works with local governments and community partners to help ensure that laws are enforced equitably and civil rights are protected, including workers rights, voting rights, immigrant rights, housing rights, and more. Since 2022 they have been on the frontlines of ongoing state & local legal fights to protect reproductive rights across the country.

Jill’s work emphasizes consumer fraud, corporate power, health, and civil rights, including issues related to gender and LGBT rights. In 2015, she led the creation and launch of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Children’s Justice and managed its work, including civil rights investigations of school districts, child welfare departments, and juvenile justice systems. She served on the Affirmative Litigation Task Force at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where she worked on the landmark trial challenging Proposition 8 (marriage equality).

Jill regularly speaks to the media about civil rights and contributes opinion articles to top-tier publications (op-ed in The Hill about protecting abortion rights in hostile states: The abortion battle has moved to your local court). Her expertise has been featured by USA Today, The 19th, Daily Kos, Fortune Broadsheet, Washington Post, Reuters, WRHU 88.7 FM (Hofstra University), The New York Times, CNN, New York Magazine, and many others.

She is currently a lecturer at Berkeley Law School, teaching state and local impact litigation, and previously taught a local government law course at Yale Law School with Prof. Heather Gerken (now dean of Yale Law School). Habig’s course became the foundation of the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project. Jill earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Georgetown University.

Sub-specialties:
Civil Rights Investigations
Civil Rights & Liberties
Constitutional Law
Consumer Law And Protection
Children's Rights
Law And Social Entrepreneurship
State And Local Governments
Political Campaigns
Policy Advocacy
Public Law
Affirmative Litigation
Impact Litigation
Consumer Fraud
Gender And LGBTQ Rights
Reproductive Justice And Abortion Rights