LAUREN BIRZON HARRIMAN (SHE/HER)

FAMILY LAW MANAGING ATTORNEY

Lauren joined DCALF in 2024 with nearly fifteen years of experience advising and advocating for clients in family law cases in DC. She has trained hundreds of attorneys, law students, judges, and community members on topics of family law and litigation and mentored scores of attorneys new to family law practice.

At DCALF, Lauren leads the organization’s efforts to provide accessible justice to modest-income DC residents with family law needs.

Immediately before joining DCALF, Lauren was a Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence and the Acting Director of the Gender Justice Clinic at American University’s Washington College of Law. She also previously served as a Clinical Teaching Fellow in Georgetown Law’s Domestic Violence Clinic. In these roles, Lauren supervised law students representing clients in family law, immigration, and domestic violence matters. She also designed and taught classes to support the development of students’ lawyering skills.

Before teaching, Lauren was a senior attorney at DC’s Children’s Law Center, where she represented the best interests of children in complex custody cases, advocated for child caregivers in custody, neglect, and adoption matters, and provided substantive support to pro bono attorneys in their domestic relations practice.

Lauren began her career as a legal fellow at the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and then as an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Washington, DC.

Lauren currently serves as a member of the DC Bar Foundation’s Young Lawyer’s Network Leadership Council. She is a previous Women’s Law Public Policy Fellow and graduate of the D.C. Bar’s John L. Payton Leadership Academy.

Lauren received her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and her B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park.