FAIR HOUSING PROJECT

Mary J. Hahn, Project Director
Isabelle Thabault, Senior Counsel
Shalini Agarwal, Staff Attorney
Joanna Wald, Paralegal

The Fair Housing Project challenges housing discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, source of income, and familial status (children under the age of 18). Over the years, the Project, working closely with the National Fair Housing Alliance and the Equal Rights Center (formerly the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington), has won millions of dollars for victims of discrimination. In recent years, the Project has broken new ground by attacking discriminatory mortgage lending and homeowners' insurance practices. 

If you live in the Washington metropolitan area, and believe that you have been discriminated against in housing, please complete the intake questionnaire online or print the questionnaire, complete it, and mail it to: Washington Lawyers' Committee, 11 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, Attn: Fair Housing Project. Or, e-mail your questions to the Fair Housing Project at Housing@washlaw.org.

If you are a DC-area attorney interested in learning more about the Fair Housing Project, or in volunteering for the Washington Lawyers' Committee, please e-mail the Project at Housing@washlaw.org or call 202-319-1000.

To find out whether you are eligible to participate in a pending fair housing case, see group lawsuits and class actions.


Online Resources

FAIR HOUSING PROJECT STAFF

Mary J. Hahn, Fair Housing Project Director
Mary_Hahn@washlaw.org

Mary J. Hahn became the Director of the Fair Housing Project at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in August 2008. Prior to joining the Committee, she worked at Relman & Dane PLLC, a civil rights law firm, where she represented numerous individuals and fair housing groups in cases involving discrimination in housing, insurance, and lending and provided counseling to financial institutions on fair lending laws. Previously, Ms. Hahn served as Visiting Lecturer and Robert M. Cover-Allard K. Lowenstein Fellow at Yale Law School and supervised two clinics focused on issues related to international human rights, constitutional law, civil liberties, and national security. From 2001-2002, Ms. Hahn worked at the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project, focusing primarily on a case involving the racially motivated false arrests of fifteen African-American residents in a drug sweep of a small town in Texas. Ms. Hahn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School. After graduating from law school, she clerked for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., then Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, New York, Massachusetts, and the U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Isabelle M. Thabault, Senior Counsel
Isabelle_Thabault@washlaw.org

Isabelle M. Thabault served as the Director of the Fair Housing Project from August 2004 through August 2008, after serving over 25 years in the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice.  Ms. Thabault has litigated a wide variety of civil rights issues including employment, housing, public accommodations, and lending.  She has also prosecuted criminal civil rights cases involving racial violence and police brutality.  Ms. Thabault also served as Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section.  She is a frequent speaker on housing issues, is an adjunct professor at George Washington University, and has most recently published, “Discrimination Against Participants in the Housing Choice Voucher Program: An Enforcement Strategy.”  Poverty & Race Research Action Council, Vol 15: No. 1 (Jan./Feb. 2006).   Ms. Thabault has also worked at the Federal Trade Commission, and was selected as  a Congressional Fellow by the American Political Science Association.

Ms. Thabault received her law degree from Vermont Law School. 

Shalini Agarwal, Staff Attorney
Shalini Agarwal@washlaw.org

Shalini Goel Agarwal joined the Committee as its Fair Housing Project Staff Attorney in May 2009. Prior to that, she was a litigation fellow at Relman & Dane, PLLC, a civil rights law firm, where she represented plaintiffs in employment and housing discrimination cases. Ms. Agarwal graduated with honors from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She is a member of the California bar; her application for the D.C. bar is currently pending.