Denise Harle

Denise Harle serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is the director of the Center for Life and leads her team’s litigation and advocacy efforts to defend pro-life laws around the nation. She also works with pro-life allies, speaks publicly on behalf of ADF, and works to defend the First Amendment freedoms of pro-life medical professionals and pregnancy resource centers. Since joining ADF, Harle took the primary role in drafting briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in NIFLA v. Becerra, resulting in a free-speech victory for pro-life pregnancy centers. She was one of the ADF attorneys who assisted Mississippi’s legal team in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court victory that reversed Roe v. Wade.

Prior to joining ADF, Harle served as deputy solicitor general in the Office of the Florida Attorney General, where she drafted appellate briefs and presented oral arguments in a wide variety of constitutional cases. In 2017, she was selected as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow, sponsored by the National Association of Attorneys General. She clerked for Justice Ricky L. Polston on the Florida Supreme Court and worked for several years as an appellate litigator at a large firm in California.

Harle earned bachelor’s degrees, summa cum laude, in psychology and interdisciplinary social science from Florida State University, a master’s degree in political science from Stanford University, and a Juris Doctor from Duke University. She has testified before Congress and has been featured in major media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Fox News, PBS, and The Washington Post. Harle serves as a Gov. DeSantis appointee to the Florida Faith-Based and Community-Based Advisory Council supporting churches and nonprofits as they care for vulnerable members of society. A member of the state bars of California, Florida, and Georgia, she is admitted to multiple federal district and appellate courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.