The Rise of Labor and How to be a Movement Oriented General Counsel

Join Wasserstein Fellow Retu Singla for a discussion about the rise of the independent labor movement such as the Amazon Labor Union and Trader Joe’s, and how to use law to build the power of working people. Retu will share lessons from her career representing nascent unions and dissidents, and working within the larger civil rights and labor movement to change the conditions that lead to work exploitation. She will also discuss how to develop a legal practice based on anti-oppressive principles to win progressive change.

Retu Singla has been a community activist for over 30 years and a movement lawyer for over 20 years. As a partner at Julien, Mirer, Singla & Goldstein PLLC., A Working People’s Law Center, she works to help change the conditions that lead to worker exploitation so as to strengthen the grassroots base of the labor and civil rights movements. She is currently first general counsel to the Amazon Labor Union and to Trader Joe’s United, as well as representing a number of tech workers in organizing campaigns. Her practice is based on anti-oppressive and democratic principles to create an environment that mirrors progressive change that is movement centered. She is a member of the Legal Network for Gender Equity & TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, Fast Food Justice and Law for Black Lives. She has served as a Delegate of International Accompaniers by the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela to observe the expanded audit of the April 14, 2013, Special Election after the March 5, 2013 death of President Hugo Chavez and a Delegate to the 2008 International Conference of the Role of Unions and Labor Lawyers in Havana Cuba. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the New School for Social Research and a Juris Doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles, Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Lunch provided. Please RSVP below!

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