Using Law in the Service of People It Wasn’t Intended to Help: Advocating as a Union Lawyer

Join Wasserstein Fellow and union attorney Pamela Devi Chandran for a discussion on using law as one (important) tool in the larger fight for working people’s rights. Unionized workplaces comprise people of diverse backgrounds who are united in a struggle to improve their worklife. At a time when the contours of labor law seem bent against the labor movement, Pamela will share how lawyers must rely on strategy, advocacy, and the power of numbers to effect change – including change in the law. Open to the HLS community.

Lunch provided. RSVP below.

Pamela Devi Chandran is the Director of Legal Affairs and Strategic Initiatives for the Washington State Nurses Association, a union representing 21,000 registered nurses in Washington State. In this position, Pamela develops and enacts strategic roadmaps that foster union nurses’ ability to advocate for themselves and their patients and ensures that the Union functions efficiently so that staff resources are used in the best interest of the membership. In addition, Pamela performs the traditional work of union-side labor counsel: negotiating collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”), pursuing complaints against bad actor employers, arbitrating violations of CBAs, and providing advice to Union leadership.

Prior to her current position, Pamela represented public and private sector labor unions as both in-house and outside counsel. Pamela is the ABA Section of Labor & Employment’s DEI officer for the union/employee-side constituency and is a strong advocate for diversity and equity in employment specifically and in the legal professional generally. Since 2017, she has served on the board of the Wage Justice Center in Los Angeles, an organization that fights for low-wage workers by enforcing judgments for wage-theft against employers.

She holds an AB from Dartmouth College, an MA in critical studies in cinema from USC, and a JD from UCLA, the Epstein Program in Public Interest and Policy.

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.