With a wide-ranging career in both private practice and leadership roles within in-house legal departments, Rob Falk’s career has been about service from the start.  As a young law firm associate, Rob began pro bono work for causes he cared about, including work that eventually led to his hiring as acting General Counsel at D.C. General Hospital and later as General Counsel of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the world-renowned HIV/AIDS social services agency. 

Rob spent 11 years as General Counsel of the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, where he supported the organization’s work on policy changes such as the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repeal and the passage of marriage equality and employment nondiscrimination legislation by state legislatures.

Rob and TendingBar’s host, Todd Harris, first met more than a decade ago, when Todd’s law firm, Womble Bond Dickinson, began doing a bit of pro bono work for HRC.  In the intervening years, Rob has participated in educational sessions with Womble to educate attorneys about legal challenges confronting the LGBTQ community.  In our interview, Rob was kind enough to reprise some of his excellent teaching.*

Now the General Counsel of The Truth Initiative – the non-profit that was formed and funded by the nationwide, multi-state tobacco industry settlement, Rob supports the organization’s mission to educate young persons about the risks of tobacco usage. 

In our TendingBar interview Rob reflects on the values that have motivated a long, impactful career of service.

Key Discussion Moments (minutes:seconds)

[1:35 If you listen carefully, you just might hear Lucy the Corgi barking outside Todd’s window.  It’s still the COVID era, so we’re working from home!]

4:00 What was it like to run the legal department of Whitman-Walker Clinic in D.C., the world’s leading research center for AID patients in the early years of HIV?

6:10 Work as the General Counsel of the Human Rights Campaign

9:40 Learning the language of LGBTQIA+*

19:52 Understanding some of the unique legal challenges confronting the LGBTQ community

26:30 Reflecting on Obergefell & Marriage Equality

30:40 Lessons from the marriage equality movement for America’s current conversations around race equality

33:05 Education and Leadership as Keys to Anti-Discrimination Battles

38:50 Implicit Biases – The “tapes that run through our brains”

44:13 Views on current protests from the perspective of a DC resident

47:30 The Mission of the Truth Initiative

51:49 What drives Rob’s calling to public service?

53:15 Rob’s advice to today’s students

58:05 Notes on the Supreme’s Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County

[Afterword:  Stick around afterwards for a quick outtake from Todd — a little free-of-charge, folksy philosophizing about strategies to combat discrimination.]

*Note:  While we tried to avoid unfairly asking Rob to represent the viewpoints of the entire, diverse LGBTQ community, we did ask him to help us learn better ways to engage in conversation about issues affecting the community, including ways to be respectful with our use of language.  A focus of Rob’s comments was the need for all of us to self-educate about the challenges of our LGBTQ neighbors.  Nevertheless, Rob was gracious enough to indulge some very basic questions that, to some viewers, might have seemed disrespectful, so we should point out that we had discussed those questions in advance of the interview, precisely because they were included as part of several education sessions Rob previously led at Todd’s law firm. Many thanks to Rob for his insights.