NEW YORK, NY—Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes LLP announced that the firm has received the 2026 Champion Award from the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) for its advocacy of three students and their families and the VRLC in a complaint against the U.S. Department of Education following the mass termination of employees at the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The firm’s work was led by Reid Skibell, Jon Friedman, and Megan Reilly. The firm received the award during the VRLC’s Shining Star Celebration on Oct. 1, 2026, at Artists for Humanity EpiCenter in Boston.
Glenn Agre partnered with Sean Ouellette, a former senior attorney at Public Justice who is now at Democracy Forward, to file the complaint against the Department of Education on behalf of VRLC and the students in March 2025. The Trump Administration had closed seven regional OCR offices, leaving the OCR with severely limited means to address serious student discrimination cases involving sexual assault, racist harassment, and disability-related bullying. This case was featured in The New Yorker, spotlighting the human toll of these policy decisions. After a briefing and hearing, the federal court issued a preliminary injunction halting the reduction in force. After further litigation, the federal government agreed to rehire the terminated employees and reopen the closed offices.
