Kathleen R. Hartnett to Receive the Bill Hirsh Award
June 8, 2026
We are thrilled to announce that Kathleen R. Hartnett will receive the Bill Hirsh Award at our 43rd Annual Reception on October 22. Named for ALRP’s legendary executive director of 24 years, the award recognizes an individual who leads with courage, tenacity, and kindness, even in very tough times.
Kathleen R. Hartnett
Kathleen, a partner in the San Francisco office of Cooley LLP, has an extraordinary, decades’ long record of advancing a broad range of social justice issues. As s special assistant and associate counsel to President Obama, she was involved in the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (a law prohibiting openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people from serving in the military) and the Defense of Marriage Act (which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages). As deputy assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Kathleen represented the federal government in high-profile civil litigation.
Since leaving government service, she has pursued challenges to abortion restrictions across the country and sought parole reform and constitutional protections for young adult offenders. In 2024, she filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court opposing Donald Trump’s assertion of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. And for over five years, in an increasingly hostile climate, she has advocated for the rights of trans people to participate fully in public life. In January of this year, this advocacy culminated in an appearance before the Supreme Court, where Kathleen argued on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, a transgender woman who challenged an Idaho law barring all transgender girls and women from participating on girls’ and women’s school sports teams.
Kathleen Hartnett is a lawyer’s lawyer with the courage and tenacity to fight for justice against strong headwinds. She invariably brings her formidable brain, dogged commitment and kind heart to her work. Watching her in the Supreme Court was like taking a master class in effective lawyering.
– Anthony Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union, Inc.
Kathleen attended Harvard University and after graduating from Harvard Law School, she clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Join us on October 22 as we honor Kathleen!