Legal Pioneer
In the Movement to Protect LGBTQ+ Rights
Bringing Decades of Experience to Today’s Leaders
As a leading figure in the LGBTQ+ equality movement for 25 years, Dru has extensive experience in law, advocacy, philanthropy, and community organizing.
Dru is the founder and principal of Dru Levasseur Consulting, LLC, working to implement best practice standards for LGBTQ+ equity. A contributor to White House policy and US Supreme Court arguments, Dru has provided guidance to global companies, law practices, law schools, medical institutions, HR organizations, and government agencies.
As a leading legal advisor and seasoned strategist, Dru remains active in international equal rights gatherings, and was selected as a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School. He serves alongside Gloria Steinem and other notable feminists as a member of the Board of Directors of the ERA Coalition and Fund for Women’s Equality, and as a an Advisory Board member for the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative of the University of Pennsylvania. He is admitted in New York, Georgia, D.C., and Massachusetts.
A Trailblazer in the Movement for Trans and LGBTQ+ Rights
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.
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.
Dru 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.
Landmark Litigation
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. He graduated cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and earned his law degree in 2006 from Western New England University School of Law.
Early Activism
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.
Learn more about Dru’s early activism in “Your Authenticity is Your Power”
