Derek J. Demeri (he/him or they/them) joined the firm as an associate in 2024 with an extensive background in anti-discrimination work and community organizing, particularly for the LGBTQ+ and sex worker communities. He graduated Order of the Coif from Rutgers Law School (Camden) in 2020. During their years as a law student, Derek served as the Managing Editor of Rutgers Law Review, President of OUTLaws, the Northeast Representative of the National Advisory Committee for Equal Justice Works, and a Fellow with the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He was also an extern to the Honorable Michael A. Shipp (District of New Jersey) and a law clerk to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s national LGBT & HIV Project. Upon graduation, they clerked for the Honorable Arnold L. Natali (New Jersey Appellate Division) and was a litigator with Zeff Law Firm, LLC focused on plaintiff-side employment discrimination and civil rights. Prior to entering the legal profession, Derek co-founded the New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance—New Jersey’s first sex worker rights organization—and was a boycott organizer with UNITE HERE! supporting workers during the 2016 Trump Taj Mahal Casino strike in Atlantic City. He received his B.A. in political science from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2015. Derek also teaches a course on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination at Rutgers Law School as an Adjunct Professor and proudly joined the strike line during the 2023 AAUP professors’ strike.
