Jeannie Rhee has had a lifelong career dedicated to challenging injustice. As a dynamic litigator, she has served in impactful roles, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Obama Administration and as a prosecutor in Robert Mueller in the Special Counsel’s Office, where she led the investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election. Today, as a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, she has taken on a number of impactful civil rights cases, including challenging the Proud Boys, a violent all-male group with ties to white nationalism.
On January 4, 2021, just two days before the January 6th insurrection, Jeannie Rhee and her team at Paul, Weiss joined the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in suing the Proud Boys and its leader Enrique Tarrio for a racist attack on a historic Black church in D.C. Only a few weeks earlier, in December 2020, the Proud Boys violently attacked and vandalized Metropolitan AME Church, destroying their Black Lives Matter flag. Our full co-counsel team worked through the holidays to file suit, and for nearly three years, we have continued to fight to hold the Proud Boys accountable and prevent future attacks against Black and Brown communities.
“To me, fighting for justice and safeguarding the rule of law are an essential part of my ethical responsibilities as an attorney. But the racist attack by the Proud Boys on the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church over the church’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement also felt deeply personal to me as an immigrant of color. While I have been embraced by this country and have built a successful legal career here, I’m deeply troubled by the increase in hate-driven violence increase across our nation.”
– Jeannie Rhee, partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Washington Lawyers’ Committee Board member
Jeannie has received numerous recognitions, including the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Award in 2021 and the Women’s Bar Association of DC “Woman Lawyer of the Year” in 2020. We are proud to have Jeannie Rhee as a member of the Board of Directors at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and are thrilled to continue our work together to hold the Proud Boys accountable for their violent actions.
