Judi O’Kelley has served since 2017 as the Chief Program Officer for the National LGBTQ+ Bar, in which she leads a broad range of programmatic initiatives. Judi’s work at the Bar includes building the annual Lavender Law® Conference program, supporting the Bar’s state and local Bar affiliate program and our law school affiliate program, developing resources for LGBTQ+ law students and lawyers, supporting the work of the Bar’s and NCLR’s Family Law Institute®, and overseeing the Bar’s policy work.

Judi brings over thirty years of legal and political experience working for equality within the LGBTQ+ community. While in law school, she worked against anti-gay ballot initiatives in Oregon; after graduating and entering private practice, she moved to Georgia and worked on behalf of local and national LGBTQ+ groups as a pro bono attorney, drafting and lobbying for successful non-discrimination protections and domestic partnership benefit programs for several Georgia municipalities, including Atlanta and Athens. In 2004, she served as President and Campaign Chair for the campaign for the Athens, Georgia area in opposition to Georgia’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions, and continued grass-roots organizing and local political work after the campaign. Judi also was the lead plaintiff from 2004-2006 in the case of O’Kelley v. Perdue, in which Lambda Legal, the Georgia ACLU, and the law firm of Alston & Bird sought to strike down Georgia’s anti-marriage amendment. Judi then spent nearly twelve years on the staff and in senior management of Lambda Legal in roles ranging from Southern Regional Director, to Director of Life Planning, to Deputy Director of Development, to Director of Leadership.

Judi received her B.A. from Colorado College in 1990. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1996, she served as a law clerk for Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practiced appellate and employment law in Atlanta for Jones Day and two boutique law firms, before joining Lambda Legal in 2006.

Paul is the LGBTQ+ Bar’s Chief Development Officer, in which he is responsible for all of the LGBTQ+ Bar’s fundraising initiatives. Under Paul’s leadership, the LGBTQ+ Bar has significantly increased its conference fundraising as well as expanded its individual and institutional giving programs. Paul has substantial experience in fundraising, LGBTQ+ non-profit leadership, and law.

Prior to this position, Paul served as the Director of Development for Reaching Out MBA, another LGBTQ+ nonprofit, as well as the Director of External Affairs here at the LGBTQ+ Bar. In his prior role at the LGBTQ+ Bar, Paul was responsible for maintaining relationships with the organization’s internal and external constituents, which included corporations and law firms, as well as overseeing the Bar’s membership efforts. In that role, Paul was at one point also responsible for much of the organization’s programmatic initiatives, including Lavender Law® Conference & Career Fair planning and overseeing the Law Student Congress. Paul has experience speaking on a number of issues related to LGBTQ+ rights and the law.

Paul is an attorney who previously worked with students in higher education, having served as the Assistant Director of the Law Career Development Office at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and, before that, practiced law for two litigation firms in the Baltimore area.

Paul received his J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Muhlenberg College.

Dru Levasseur is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. As a leading figure in the LGBTQ+ equality movement for 25 years, 15 of which in the legal profession, Dru has extensive experience in law, advocacy, philanthropy, and community organizing. He leads the LGBTQ+ Bar’s DEI Consulting Practice, the only LGBTQ+ inclusion coaching and consulting program designed specifically to enable the implementation of best practice standards for LGBTQ+ equity across law firms, law schools, and companies.

Previously, Dru was Senior Attorney and Transgender Rights Project Director for Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV. From 2009 to 2019, a critical time in history for advancing the civil rights of transgender people, Dru led Lambda Legal’s transgender rights work through strategy development, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education. He served as counsel in landmark impact litigation cases and amicus briefs in federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Dru represented Robina Asti, a 92-year-old WWII veteran, in a successful challenge to the Social Security Administration, leading to clarified policy for fairly processing survivor’s benefits. In McCreery v. Don’s Valley Market, he secured a landmark settlement before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a transgender woman fired after transitioning in the workplace. He was co-counsel in Esquivel v. Oregon, resulting in the removal of discriminatory restrictions on transition-related health care for all transgender employees of the State of Oregon, and in Fields v. Smith, a federal case successfully challenging a discriminatory Wisconsin law barring its Department of Corrections from providing medically necessary care for transgender inmates. Under Dru’s decade of leadership, Lambda Legal’s transgender rights litigation docket more than tripled, integrating transgender rights across all areas of work, including health care, employment, education, criminal justice, housing and family law.

Dru was instrumental in the creation and development of Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project in 2013, as well as Lambda’s most popular online publication, the Transgender Toolkit. He led the coalition work to publish the first Trans-Affirming Model Hospital Policy with the New York City Bar Association, Hogan Lovells, Proskauer Rose LLP, and the Human Rights Campaign. The guide has been well-received nationally by hospitals and adopted by government officials. As lead on Lambda Legal’s transgender rights advocacy efforts, Dru participated in the White House’s first transgender policy meeting in 2011, and met regularly with key federal, state and local officials, advising on development and implementation of policy. He represented Lambda Legal in international forums, including the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and transgender rights INCLO convenings in Cape Town, South Africa and Buenos Aires, Argentina. A thought leader on cutting-edge issues, Dru authored “Gender Identity Defines Sex: Updating the Law to Reflect Modern Medical Science Is Key to Transgender Rights,” published by Vermont Law Review and excerpted in the book Love Unites Us, highlighting the future of LGBTQ+ rights.

Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Dru was the first staff attorney at Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and before that, served as a law clerk in the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 2007, Dru co-founded the Jim Collins Foundation, a trans-led national nonprofit that funds surgeries for transgender people in need, funding twenty surgeries in ten years. He continues to serve as a working group member for Grantmakers United for Trans Communities.  Dru also serves on the boards of the ERA Coalition and Fund for Women’s Equality.

Dru is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and diversity, equity, and inclusion trainer for law firms, law schools, and Fortune 500 companies. A national and international media spokesperson, Dru has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, People Magazine, Self, Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ABA Journal, Atlantic, Vice, Daily News, New York Post, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Fox News, NPR, Huffington Post, and was profiled in the Advocate and Vanguard Law Magazine. His leadership has been recognized through many honors and awards from institutions such as the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, Inaugural “Trans 100,” City Bar of New York, Brooklyn Law School OUTLaws, and Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition.

Dru was a 2021-2022 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School, and graduated cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  He earned his law degree in 2006 from Western New England University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in DC, NY, GA, and MA.

Mari Nemec serves as Advocacy Counsel at the Nat’l LGBTQ+ Bar, where she provides substantive and legal support to the Bar’s advocacy work, including monitoring and responding to legislative and judicial issues impacting the LGBTQ+ legal community and facilitating the Bar’s programmatic initiatives, including serving as the Bar’s liaison with the Law Student Congress. Mari also serves as a Co-Chair of the Bar’s Judicial Nominations and Executive Appointments Committee.

Mari returned to the Nat’l LGBTQ+ Bar in the summer of 2023 as the Bar’s first ever Policy Counsel, but her history with the organization goes back nearly a decade. She first joined the staff in the summer of 2017 as an intern, before joining the team full-time in 2018 as Manager of Public Affairs. In 2019, she left the organization to attend law school where she served in the Bar’s Law Student Congress first as Secretary and then for two years as Co-Chair. Prior to returning to the Nat’l LGBTQ+ Bar in 2023, Mari served as a Dorot Fellow at Alliance for Justice, where she prepared reports on federal judicial nominees and monitored the federal courts. While in law school, she also clerked in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, worked at Step Up to Justice, a local legal-aid organization in Tucson, Arizona, and served as a Congressional Intern to Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick.

Mari received her J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary. In her free time, Mari enjoys reading, hiking, trying new foods, and joyfully following the whims of her beloved cattle dog, Miss Matilda Fig.

Nicole joined the LGBTQ+ Bar in November 2021 as the Development Manager and is responsible for cultivating donor relationships and expanding the Bar’s fundraising initiatives. She brings more than a decade of experience at nonprofit organizations, where she developed partnerships with donors and sponsors, produced successful fundraising events, and created engaging communications pieces. Outside of work, she loves singing, baking, and drinking strong coffee. She received her MPA in Nonprofit Management from Baruch College and her B.A. from the State University of New York College at Oneonta.

Logan joined the LGBTQ+ Bar staff in January 2019, working as its Operations Associate. In this role, he performed administrative tasks, maintained customer service with the organization’s members, and assisted with advocacy programming.

He currently works as the Development Associate, assisting with sponsors and donors and ensuring the membership of the Bar is vibrant and opportune. Logan brings prior nonprofit and administrative experience to the team, as well as passion for LGBTQ+ equality. He worked in retail for four and a half years, learning immensely about the human condition. He wants a career devoted to justice for all marginalized people, and puts his professional talent into causes he is passionate about.

Logan was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended the University of Louisville. He earned two bachelor’s degrees, graduating in 2017 with a B.S. in Geography and a B.A. in History. Logan is a lover of drag artists, maps, spicy food, cats, pop divas, and progressive politicians.