Alyssa Lareau Joins Wardenski P.C. as Senior Counsel

Wardenski P.C. is thrilled to announce that Alyssa Lareau has joined the firm as Senior Counsel after many years of distinguished service in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Alyssa’s litigation practice at the firm will focus on LGBTQI+ rights.

Alyssa has devoted her career to combating discriminatory practices that violate the Constitution and civil rights laws. From 2009 to 2025, Alyssa was a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division, where she served in the Division’s Special Litigation Section from 2009 to 2014, then in the Division’s Federal Coordination and Compliance Section from 2014 to 2025.

• In the Special Litigation Section, Alyssa led investigations of and brought enforcement actions against adult and juvenile correctional facilities and law enforcement agencies for constitutional violations. One of her notable litigation matters in the section involved conducting a full evidentiary hearing to demonstrate the continued need for a consent decree regarding unconstitutional conditions at a Virgin Islands correctional facility under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.

• In the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section, Alyssa investigated and enforced race, color, national origin, and sex discrimination matters under the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“Section 1557”), and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Her notable litigation matters included challenging North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” Alabama and Tennessee’s gender-affirming care bans, and Hesperia, California’s “crime-free” ordinance.

At DOJ, Alyssa gained significant policy and regulatory expertise, including drafting the LGBTQI+ provisions in DOJ’s final rule implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act and co-leading the Civil Rights Division’s legal review and clearance of the 2022 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and 2024 Final Rule implementing Section 1557’s nondiscrimination provisions.

Alyssa has been routinely recognized for her leadership. She was awarded the Civil Rights Division’s John Dunne Award in 2022 for exceptional accomplishments furthering civil rights, as well as multiple Assistant Attorney General Distinguished Service Awards during her DOJ tenure. In 2012, Alyssa was recognized by the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association as one of the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40.

During her tenure at DOJ, Alyssa was a member of the Civil Rights Division’s LGBTQI+ Working Group, serving as the group’s co-chair from 2015 to 2022, including serving as co-chair with Joe Wardenski, Wardenski P.C.’s founder, from 2015 to 2016.

“I couldn’t be more excited to welcome my friend and former DOJ colleague, Alyssa Lareau, to our growing civil rights practice,” said Joe Wardenski, Wardenski P.C.’s founder and principal. “Alyssa’s wealth of civil rights experience, leadership, and kindness will serve our clients well as we continue our focus on combating unlawful and unjust discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community and other groups.”

“I am thrilled to join Wardenski P.C. and be able to contribute to the high profile and important discrimination cases Joe has brought on behalf of the firm’s clients,” said Alyssa Lareau. “Fighting for LGBTQI+ equality has always been a guiding principle in my career and I am lucky to be able to continue that work here.”

Alyssa is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was Senior Notes and Comments Editor for The Georgetown Law Journal and a Public Interest Law Scholar.

Read more about Alyssa’s background here.