Doing Good While Doing Well: Jumpstarting Your Career in Civil Rights

Join Wasserstein Fellow Shaylyn Cochran for a discussion about her work litigating civil rights class actions and championing the rights of some of the country’s most vulnerable communities through impact litigation on issues involving workplace misconduct, housing discrimination, disability rights, and more. Shaylyn will share lessons from her career navigating private public interest law firms, transitioning to the public sector, and finding strategies for showing up as your authentic self at work. Shaylyn also will give her pitch on the power of developing “soft skills” and learning how to become an effective manager early in your career.

Open to the Harvard Law community. Lunch provided. RSVP below.

Shaylyn Cochran is a Counselor in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of the Attorney General where she advises on civil rights and criminal justice issues. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where she served as the primary reviewer of the Employment Litigation and Immigrant & Employee Rights Sections, helped to review cases and matters from other Sections, coordinated the Division’s stakeholder engagement strategies, and served as a thought partner with senior DOJ leadership. Ms. Cochran joined the Justice Department in February 2021. Prior to joining the Department, Ms. Cochran was a Partner in the Civil Rights & Employment Practice Group of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC where she litigated civil rights class actions and complex cases.

Ms. Cochran earned her B.S. and B.A. from Ohio and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership. While a law student, Ms. Cochran served as a litigation intern at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Disability Rights Section at the Civil Rights Division. For two years during law school, Ms. Cochran also was a student attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, where she represented indigent clients on family law matters.

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.