Robin R. Runge, Esq. is the Director of the Commission on Domestic Violence at the American Bar Association. As Director, she manages all aspects of Commission programming with the mission of improving access to justice for domestic violence victims by mobilizing the legal profession, including: fundraising, budget management, staff recruitment and management, program development and policy development. Robin speaks nationally, provides trainings, and writes articles on various aspects of the legal response to domestic violence, including the employment rights of domestic violence victims. The Commission collaborates with other national, statewide, regional and local bar associations, legal aid organizations and violence against women programs to provide technical assistance and training to attorneys representing domestic violence victims, including the development of programming, legal research, and publications.
Robin has been a domestic violence victim advocate for fifteen years. She practiced employment law for five years with a focus on women’s rights in employment, specifically the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and employment protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Robin is a nationally-recognized expert on the employment rights of victims and speaks and provides trainings regularly on these issues. She has co-authored several articles on employment law and domestic violence, and has worked on state and federal legislation providing job-guaranteed leave from work, unemployment insurance and anti-discrimination in employment for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.
Previously, Robin was Deputy Director and Coordinator of the Program on Women’s Employment Rights (POWER) at the D.C. Employment Justice Center and the coordinator of the Domestic Violence and Employment Project at the Employment Law Center, Legal Aid Society of San Francisco. In these capacities, she was responsible for the development and supervision of the legal, policy, and public education components of each program, including supervising legal clinics, supervising attorneys providing legal representation to low income women, and conducting trainings on these issues for domestic violence victims, advocates, policy-makers, attorneys and human resource managers. In 1997, Robin was the first George Washington University Law School graduate to receive one of fourteen Equal Justice Fellowships from Equal Justice Works (formerly the National Association for Public Interest Law) to create the Domestic Violence and Employment Project at the Legal Aid Society of San Francisco - one of the first programs in the country devoted exclusively to advocating for the employment rights of domestic violence victims. In 2000, Robin was a public policy attorney for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in its Washington, DC office.
Robin currently serves on the advisory boards of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence (CAEPV) and the Women’s Information Network. In 2006, she was also appointed to the Washington, DC Mayor’s Commission on Women and joined the board of the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH). From 2001-2005, she was a member of the board of directors of Women Empowered Against Violence (WEAVE), a non-profit agency providing legal, counseling and economic literacy support to domestic violence victims in Washington, DC and co-chair of the board in 2005. She has also served on the board of the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence (1998-2000), and co-chair of its Public Policy and Research Committee (1998-2000). Robin is currently an Associate Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School teaching Public Interest Lawyering and an Adjunct Professor at The American University Washington College of Law where she teaches Domestic Violence Law.
Robin is a member of the California Bar and District of Columbia Bar. She graduated from The George Washington University Law School where she received the West Publishing Award for Clinical Achievement in Family Law and the Baer Award for Individual Excellence. She received her B.A. in History and French, cum laude, from Wellesley College. Robin is from Collinsville, Illinois, outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
