Carl Charles is the Elayne Cassidy Nicholas Memorial Counsel for Trans and Nonbinary Rights, based in the Southern Regional Office of Lambda Legal. During his time at Lambda Legal, Carl has been involved in litigating many cases that expand and solidify federal civil rights protections for transgender people. Most recently, he is counsel in Schlacter et al. v. U.S. Department of State et al., challenging the federal government’s discriminatory passport policy and in B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education et al., challenging West Virginia’s law banning girls and women who are transgender from participating in school sports. In addition to litigation, Carl contributes to federal and state legislative and policy efforts concerning protections for transgender youth and adults in a variety of settings. 

Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Carl was an attorney with the national non-profit, A Better Balance, and before that, he worked as an attorney with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Carl began his legal career as a Skadden Fellow with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project where his project focused on supporting transgender youth experiencing homelessness, living in out-of-home care, and/or involved in the juvenile criminal legal system.