Thomas Perez - Professional Career

Professional Career

Perez has spent his entire career in public service. He began his law career as a law clerk for Judge Zita Weinshienk of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado from 1987 to 1989.

Perez spent 12 years in federal public service, from 1989 until 2001. He spent the bulk of his federal public service at the United States Department of Justice. He was a federal prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from 1989 to 1995. In so doing, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the Department's most high profile civil rights cases, including a hate crime case in Texas involving a gang of white supremacists who went on a deadly, racially motivated crime spree directed at African Americans. He later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. Among other responsibilities, Perez chaired the inter-agency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect vulnerable workers.

From 1995 until 1998, Perez served as Special Counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, Perez served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

From 2001 until 2007, Perez was a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he taught in the school's nationally recognized clinical law, and law and health program. Perez is currently a part-time member of the faculty at the George Washington University School of Public Health.