Richard Saenz (he/him) is Counsel and the Criminal Justice and Police Misconduct Strategist at Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV. He focuses his work on the criminal legal system, coordinating litigation and policy work on behalf of incarcerated people and against the criminalization and policing of LGBTQ+ people.

Richard is the project manager and co-author of Protected & Served? 2022, Lambda Legal’s groundbreaking community survey on the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV with the criminal legal system. The report is available at http://www.ProtectedAndServed.org

Currently, Richard is lead counsel in Levy v. Green, et al. a challenge to Maryland Department of Public Safety’s denial of gender affirming surgery and commissary items for Ms. Levy and its discriminatory housing practices. He is lead counsel in Roe v. Foley, et al. on behalf of Ms. Roe, a formerly incarcerated transgender woman living with HIV, who was put in solitary confinement for over six years due to an unconstitutional and discriminatory policy against people living with HIV.

Previously, he was lead counsel in John Doe v. Delaware County, et al. concerning the unlawful denial of participation in a prison’s work program because of Mr. Doe’s HIV status and the unlawful disclosure of his HIV-positive status that settled. The settlement provides for financial compensation for the plaintiff and a change to the facility’s policies. He was lead counsel in Dorn v. Michigan Department of Corrections that resulted in substantive changes to the MDOC’s policy directive that unlawfully discriminated against incarcerated people living with HIV. Richard is on the legal team in Immigration Equality v. DHS, a challenge that stopped the Trump administration’s death-to-asylum from ever going into effect.

Richard was counsel in Hicklin v. Precythe, a successful challenge to Missouri’s DOC’s “freeze frame” policy denying appropriate health care to transgender people in its custody, in one of the first court decisions to rule specifically that “freeze-frame” policies are unconstitutional as they are in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The court ordered that Ms. Hicklin have access to hormone therapy, permanent body hair removal, and access to gender-affirming canteen items.

At the U. S. Supreme Court, he co-authored an amicus brief in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Corlett concerning the constitutionality of New York’s licensing for concealed carry permits. The brief details the elevated risk of harm from firearms towards LGBTQ+ people including hate violence and suicide. He co-authored an amicus brief in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson that highlights the unique harms of the unconstitutional criminalization of homelessness for marginalized youth. And, in Rhines v. Young, a capital case from South Dakota, Richard was co-author of an amicus brief urging the U. S. Supreme Court to allow Mr. Rhines to present evidence that anti-gay bias was a factor in some jurors’ decisions to sentence him to death.

Richard’s legislative work includes coalition work on New York State’s Gender Identity Respect, Dignity, and Safety Act and the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act. He is part of the legal team in Chandler v. CDCR defending California’s SB 132, The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, on behalf of intervenors. In 2016, he served as a panelist at the White House LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice Briefing.

His work has been featured in the Washington Post, NBC News, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Advocate. He is the author of “A Crisis Behind Bars: Legal Issues Impacting Transgender People in Prisons” the featured article for the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Magazine, Winter 2023. He is a frequent speaker on the impact of the criminal legal system on LGBTQ+ people including at national conferences and at law schools across the country. And has been a guest on American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section’s podcast, JustPod and the LGBT Bar of New York’s podcast to discuss, “Can the criminal legal system protect LGBTQ+ people?”

In 2024, Richard was selected as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. The program recognizes exemplary lawyers who have distinguished themselves in public interest work and who can advise students who are considering similar career paths. Additionally in 2024, he received Fordham Law School’s Public Interest Resource Center’s Lefkowitz Award recognizing his contributions to public service. He is the recipient of the LGBT Bar Association of New York’s 2022 Community Excellence Award. And, he has been named a Hispanic National Bar Association’s Top Lawyers Under 40 and a National LGBTQ Bar Association’s Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40.

Prior to re-joining Lambda Legal, where he previously was a Legal Help Desk Specialist, Richad established the LGBT/HIV Advocacy Project at Queens Legal Services—one of the first programs within a traditional legal services/aid organization to center the needs of low-income and poor LGBTQ+ people.

Richard received his Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law, where he was a Stein Scholar for Public Interest Law and Ethics. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.