Law Student Union Summer Building Next Gen of Labor Lawyers

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/10/law-student-union-summer-building-next-gen-of-labor-lawyers/

by James Parks, Aug 10, 2007

The next generation of labor lawyers spent this summer learning firsthand what it’s like to work on the front lines in an organizing campaign and the problems workers face when they try to form a union.

Nine law students spent 10 weeks as Law Student Union Summer interns working with labor lawyers across the country. During the program, which ended Aug. 3, students were involved in community outreach, member mobilization, corporate research, legislative campaigns and general litigation, canvassing, planning and implementing solidarity-building activities and participating in meetings and home visits.


Michelle Todescato-Douglass (front row, center) and Adrian Healy (second left in back row) were two of the 2007 Law Student Union Summer interns.

For Michelle Todescato-Douglass, her experience helping workers at a car wash in Los Angeles form a union with the United Steelworkers was eye-opening. The soon-to-be third-year student at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, says:

This was such a great opportunity. The car wash campaign is such a breakthrough in an untraditional industry. I learned about organizing and how important it is to bring workers together.

Todescato-Douglass says she attended meetings with the mainly immigrant workers and was deeply involved in drafting an agreement for binding arbitration in wage disputes at car washes.

FULL story at link.

[eyesroll]

1. That's pretty neat...I'm doing labor/employment law (union/worker side) this summer.

It's been a lot of fun. I might end up doing this after graduation.

I'm a rising 2L, and while I don't think I want to do union organization (good cause, just not a good personality fit for me), I'm starting to get into applying for next year summer jobs. Too many of the firms that are recruiting on campus are of the Giant, Soul-Sucking and Scary variety...while I'd be OK working for a firm that had some practice areas I didn't like (as long as I was working in a practice area I did like), I don't want to work for a firm whose sole practice is labor/employment (management side), well known for its Union Avoidance program. Blech.