About

Linda Mangel is the Principal of Bright Line. She founded Bright Line to put her decades of federal civil rights experience to work helping schools, colleges and universities build and sustain learning environments that are consistent with their institutional values and aligned with federal and state nondiscrimination laws.

Before founding Bright Line, Linda served as an Enforcement Director for the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In that role, she directed the enforcement work of OCR's Boston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. regional offices, overseeing hundreds of matters across 14 jurisdictions and providing oversight for some of the nation's most complex civil rights cases. Prior to that, she served as Regional Director for the OCR Seattle Office, where she led investigations and resolution efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands.

Linda has deep subject matter expertise spanning the full spectrum of issues arising under Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, and Title II of the ADA, including some of the most pressing concerns facing education leaders today such as complaints filed by Jewish, Muslim, and Palestinian students in the wake of campus protests; systemic sexual misconduct complaints involving students, faculty, and third parties; the rights of transgender students to participate in school programs and activities; and the use of race and/or sex as a factor in admissions, recruitment and school programming.

Linda also has experience in education policy, having worked in the private non-profit sector with school districts, policymakers, and community stakeholders to help shape legislation and policy to ensure that all students have an opportunity to thrive.

Linda began her legal career as a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where she litigated employment cases involving allegations of systemic race and sex discrimination against public employers.

Linda received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Law Journal Associate Editor, and an advocate in the Georgetown Sex Discrimination Law Clinic.

Based in the Pacific Northwest, Bright Line serves educational institutions throughout the United States. Linda is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and is pending admission to the Washington Bar.