Lawyering to Fight Abuses of Corporate Power

If you’re interested in exploring a career helping people and communities fight for a fairer and more equitable marketplace, join us for a discussion with Wasserstein Fellow David Seligman. David will talk about Towards Justice’s advocacy, which involves using a variety of legal tools, including under worker rights, consumer protection, and competition laws to help their clients level the playing field. He will focus in particular on the importance of breaking down silos between different areas of law and using varied legal tools to help clients build power. Examples of Towards Justice’s work include litigation and policy advocacy on behalf of Uber and Lyft drivers asserting antitrust claims against the companies, Amazon workers and meatpacking workers seeking to protect themselves from unsafe working conditions, farmworkers fighting to dismantle their historic exclusion from labor standards laws, nurses, pilots, PetSmart workers, and tech workers challenging employer-driven debt through litigation and administrative advocacy. David will also talk about his path through clerkships, non-profit advocacy, and plaintiffs’ lawyering, and talk about the challenges (and importance) of working to find a happy, fulfilling, and sustainable path as a public interest lawyer.

Lunch provided. RSVP below.

David has been the Executive Director of Towards Justice since 2018 and previously was Litigation Counsel with the organization. At Towards Justice, David has litigated several class and collective actions to attack systemic injustices in the labor market. David also supports advocates, organizers, workers, and consumers seeking policy reforms at the state and local level on a range of economic justice issues including wage theft, non-compete requirements, whistleblower protections, and consumer protection laws. Prior to his work at Towards Justice, David was a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, working on forced arbitration and predatory auto lending. David clerked for Chief Judge Patti B. Saris of the District of Massachusetts and Judges Robert D. Sack and Susan L. Carney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. David is a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School. David is on the board of directors of the People’s Parity Project and is the president of the board of Congregation Rodef Shalom, his synagogue in Denver.

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.