Do You Want to Fight Economic Inequality? Become a Labor Lawyer!

Unions represent the strongest institutionalized force for the working class that can counteract the influence of Corporate America. As such, the role of labor lawyers has never been more important. Join OPIA to learn from Wasserstein Fellow Jonah J. Lalas, who went from union organizer to law student to now a partner at Altshuler Berzon LLP’s newly-opened Southern California office. A child of Filipino immigrants, Jonah will talk about his path to becoming a labor lawyer and discuss his work representing nurses, writers, hotel workers, linemen, and incarcerated workers. He will also offer practical tips on how to position yourself to land a place in this exciting, fulfilling, and constantly-evolving practice that continues to provide critical support to the ongoing struggle for economic justice.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP below! Open to the HLS community.

If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact HLS Accessibility Services at accessibility@law.harvard.edu two weeks in advance of the event.

Jonah’s practice consists primarily of representing unions in arbitration, administrative proceedings, advice matters, contract negotiations, and in litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He was previously a partner at a Southern California union-side law firm. Jonah has presented on a number of legal topics at conferences conducted by the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance, the California Teachers Association, the IUPAT Professionals Forum & Finishing Industries Forum, and the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Labor and Employment Law Section. He also contributes to the public discourse about the labor movement and has published opinion pieces in Newsweek, The Hill, Truthout, and The Progressive. Jonah graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He then clerked for three federal judges: Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins (N.D. Cal.), Chief Judge Dolly M. Gee (C.D. Cal.), and Judge Raymond C. Fisher (9th Circuit). Jonah is currently a Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference Lawyer Representative for the Central District of California and regularly serves as an instructor for the Union Lawyers Alliance’s monthly trial skills trainings, which is attended by 30 to 60 practicing lawyers throughout the country. He and his wife recently taught their 5th grade daughter’s after-school inaugural Mock Trial Club.