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Harris served as an attorney-advisor in the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, from 1993 to 1996. From 1996 to 1999, she was an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, earning the Harvey Levin Memorial Teaching Award. She previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice. She joined O'Melveny & Myers LLP as counsel in 1999, where she specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, becoming partner in 2005. Beginning in 2007, concurrently with her private practice, she co-directed Harvard Law School's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Clinic and was a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2009, she was named the Executive Director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown, serving in that position until 2010, when she joined the Office of Legal Policy. She returned to Georgetown in 2012 and served in that capacity until her appointment as a federal judge in 2014.
Federal judicial service
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
On May 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Harris to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge Andre M. Davis, who assumed senior status on February 28, 2014. She received a hearing on her nomination on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. On July 17, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 10–8 vote. On July 22, 2014, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Harris's nomination. On July 24, 2014, the United States Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 54–41 vote. On July 28, 2014, her nomination was confirmed by a 50–43 vote. She received her judicial commission the next day.
In 2024, Judge Harris wrote the Fourth Circuit's majority opinion in Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School, where she held that a parochial school could fire a secondary English and drama teacher for being gay. Harris, who was joined by Circuit Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, held that religious schools have a constitutional right to select their own "ministers" who adhere to Catholic teachings. In upholding the English and drama teacher's dismissal, Harris wrote that he "may have been teaching Romeo and Juliet, but he was doing so after consultation with religious teachers to ensure that he was teaching through a faith-based lens."
Harris, Pamela. "Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School" (PDF). United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
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