FAIR HOUSING PROJECT

Isabelle Thabault, Project Director

Miriam Lederer, Skadden Attorney Fellow
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

Isabelle M. Thabault, Fair Housing Project Director

Isabelle_Thabault@washlaw.org

Isabelle M. Thabault became the Director of the Fair Housing Project in August 2004, 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 Assiciation.

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

Miriam R. Lederer, Skadden Fellow

Miriam_Lederer@washlaw.org

Miriam joined the Lawyers’ Committee in the Fall of 2007, after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in May 2007 with high honors.  Miriam also worked with the Committee the summer after her second year of law school, as an intern in the Fair Housing Project.  After graduating from Yale University, Miriam and served in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.  Miriam comes to the Committee on a Skadden Fellowship; the focus of her project is to help increase the number of housing units that are accessible to persons with disabilities.  Miriam is admitted to practice law in New York; her application to the D.C. bar is currently pending.