GLAD Law Announces New Legal Director

Joshua Rovenger, former Associate Counsel to the President, Racial Justice & Equity, will join GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders’ experienced and growing civil rights legal team at the forefront of challenging anti-LGBTQ+ policies and advancing equal justice under law.

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) is pleased to announce Josh Rovenger as incoming Legal Director. The announcement follows a national search facilitated by Major, Lindsey, & Africa. Rovenger will join GLAD Law on April 7.

Joshua Rovenger, smiling in a blazer, light blue button-down shirt, and blue polkadot tie.
Joshua Rovenger

Rovenger most recently served under President Biden as Associate Counsel to the President, Racial Justice & Equity, where his wide-ranging portfolio included LGBTQI+ equity, democracy and civic engagement, religious freedom, access to justice, veterans’ affairs, and housing.

“Josh Rovenger is an experienced, strategic and passionate leader and litigator,” said Ricardo Martinez, GLAD Law Executive Director. “His deep understanding that impact litigation, public policy, and public education must work together to defend and expand civil rights and his dedicated commitment to racial and economic justice will be critical assets to GLAD Law and our movement at this pivotal moment for LGBTQ+ rights. I am thrilled to welcome Josh’s leadership as our accomplished and dedicated legal team fights around the clock to stop, delay and reduce the harm of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks coming from the current federal administration while continuing to advance GLAD Law’s vision of equality and justice for all.”

Prior to joining the White House, Rovenger was Supervising Attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, where he led economic justice cases in state and federal courts and developed and led advocacy projects focused on systems change. As Senior Staff Attorney at the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Harvard Legal Services Center Law Clinic, he served as lead counsel in litigation against the U.S. Department of Education and various corporations on behalf of hundreds of thousands of defrauded borrowers, leading to the discharge of more than $6 billion in federal student debt.

Rovenger has held Senior Associate and Associate positions at Baker Hostetler, Covington & Burling, and Ropes & Gray. He has clerked for Judge Jeffrey R. Howard at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and for Judge Michael A. Ponsor at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

“We find ourselves in a moment where future generations will ask what each of us did to fight back. This time demands resilience and creativity — traits our queer community has built up over generations and that GLAD Law exemplifies,” said Rovenger. “For decades, GLAD Law has been at the forefront of our battle for liberation and justice, achieving lasting progress that has benefited all of us, my husband and myself included. Now, when it would be easy to let anxiety and fear take hold, GLAD Law is refusing to back down, challenging government overreach and working hard to push the arc of history towards LGBTQI+, racial, and economic justice. I am humbled and exhilarated to join this brilliant team to fight for the multi-racial, gender-inclusive democracy we seek, and to do all I can to ensure that when future generations look back, all of us, together, will have met the moment.”

Since 1978, GLAD Law’s work has broken through resistance and prejudice to achieve scores of precedent-setting legal victories for transgender rights, family protections, marriage equality, LGBTQ+ youth rights, protections for people living with HIV and much more. GLAD Law is currently leading the fight against federal policies targeting LGBTQ+ people with multiple lawsuits challenging harmful Trump Administration executive orders.