The Center for WorkLife Law is an advocacy and research organization at UC Hastings Law that seeks to advance racial, gender, and class equity. At WorkLife Law, we address inequality at a structural level by developing and implementing concrete, evidence-based interventions in schools and workplaces and changing public policy at the state and national levels. We are extremely strategic in how we approach each structural intervention, forging partnerships with grassroots groups and field experts to identify the best change levers to tackle the problem at hand. With our interventions, we aim to produce dramatic changes within a two to five year timeframe. Our main areas of impact are economic security, maternal & child health, education equity, and racial and gender justice in the workplace. Throughout the pandemic, our team has also mobilized a COVID-19 emergency response, applying our legal expertise to help protect workers’ rights during the crisis.
These are just some of the problems that U.S. workers currently face. At the Center for WorkLife Law, we intervene on these problems through both systems-level change and individual interventions.
Our Senior Staff Attorney and Director of the Pregnant Scholar Initiative, Jessica Lee, was featured at several events that celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Title IX. Watch her speak at the National Women’s Law Center and the 19th News events on how to elevate Title IX’s protections for pregnant and parenting students.
The Center’s Director Joan C. Williams’ latest article in Bloomberg Law delves into why “Male Partners Get Paid More Than Female Partners – Lots More” with data from our study on racial and gender bias in law firms. Read the article here.
The Center for WorkLife Law is pleased to welcome Peri Ouyang as a summer Legal Fellow. Peri will assist with legal research and work on the Center’s ongoing projects to advance protections for pregnant, parenting, and breastfeeding workers and students, and to prevent family responsibility discrimination.
