Jose Abrigo, Esq. (he/him) is HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the oldest and largest national legal organization dedicated to securing full civil rights for LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV. In this role, Jose leads Lambda Legal’s national impact litigation, policy advocacy, and coalition-building efforts addressing HIV-related civil rights, health-care access, and systemic discrimination at both the state and federal levels.

Jose has been a driving force in high-stakes civil rights litigation. He served as an attorney on Doe v. Nashville, a federal challenge to discriminatory employment practices that excluded qualified job applicants living with HIV, and on Latasha Monroe, Administratix v. Foley, a landmark case confronting unconstitutional solitary confinement and mistreatment of a transgender woman living with HIV in Missouri’s prison system.

Jose is currently lead counsel for Lambda Legal in several nationally significant civil rights cases. He is the principal attorney advancing San Francisco AIDS Foundation v. Trump, which challenges federal actions threatening critical HIV prevention and care funding nationwide and National Urban League v. Trump, a major challenge to executive orders undermining federal diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and transgender recognition protections.

He further helped lead the national coalition and amicus strategy in Kennedy v. Braidwood, coordinating amici and policy stakeholders in defense of federal protections guaranteeing no-cost access to preventive HIV care.

In addition to his litigation work, Jose is deeply engaged in policy reform and movement-building. He is helping to lead HIV decriminalization efforts in New York State, while also supporting parallel legislative campaigns across the country to modernize outdated HIV criminal laws and align them with contemporary science and public health best practices.

At the federal level, Jose conducts direct policy advocacy with executive agencies including HHS, CDC, and HRSA, working to protect access to HIV prevention, treatment, and support services within federal grant programs and regulatory frameworks. He also provides ongoing legal support to nationwide coalitions of HIV advocates, clinicians, and community organizations.

In 2023, Jose helped support and coordinate a national coalition’s advocacy to preserve federal Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) funding in Tennessee following the state’s rejection of federal HIV prevention funds.

Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Jose served as Director and Supervising Attorney of HIV and LGBTQ Advocacy at Manhattan Legal Services, where he led direct legal services for low-income LGBTQ+ people and individuals living with HIV in federal and state courts on matters including discrimination, housing, public benefits, immigration, and identity documentation. Jose has dedicated his entire legal career to serving low income people living with HIV, LGBTQ+ individuals, and communities of color.

Jose holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law.