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Areas of Interest

Employment and Labor Law

  • Portrait of a woman with long black hair outside near a stream

    ‘In many, many ways this was my dream’

    February 15, 2023

    A Public Service Venture Fund Fellowship helped Lauren Herman ’13 launch an organization to help underserved communities in New Jersey.

  • Close up of the logo on a Walmart shopping cart.

    The American dream costs more than $29,000 a year

    February 1, 2023

    Walmart has become a better corporate citizen, ‘Still Broke’ author Rick Wartzman says, but problems with U.S. labor practices run deeper than one company.

  • Warehouse workers joining hands in a circle.

    Shaping law to build a more just economy

    January 31, 2023

    At an event last week to celebrate the launch of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, Sen. Elizabeth Warren outlined what she said are the many opportunities and challenges now facing the labor movement.  

  • Amazon labor union protesters

    ‘It just shouldn’t be this hard’

    September 20, 2022

    This is an encouraging moment for labor law — and a potentially scary one as well, according to Harvard Law School Professor of Practice Sharon Block.

  • On a vivid orange background eleven arms are raised with clenched fists with the symbols of various corporate entities in their sleeves.

    State of the Union?

    July 15, 2022

    "My hope is that workers bank power for when things aren’t as good and build unions to protect themselves," says Sharon Block.

  • Sharon Block

    Labor law expert Sharon Block appointed professor of practice

    March 15, 2022

    Sharon Block, a labor policy expert who most recently served as acting administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Biden administration, has been appointed professor of practice.

  • Brian Flores

    Brian Flores vs. the NFL

    February 9, 2022

    Two Harvard Law experts say the suit filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores faces many challenges, but that if he can get it heard in court, Flores has ‘a good story.’

  • Woman with short black hair with raised right hand and other hand on a bible held by a man

    Katherine Tai represents

    July 23, 2021

    In her new role as U.S. trade representative, Tai ’01 brings legal expertise, political savvy, and a deep commitment to American workers.

  • Factory worker walking through warehouse

    Evaluating President Biden’s first 100 days: Labor and employment

    April 28, 2021

    Harvard Law Today asked Professor Benjamin Sachs to tell us if the Biden administration is keeping its promises on labor and employment, how it’s doing — and what problems it may encounter down the road.

  • Martha Minow and Emily Broad Leib

    COVID and the law: What have we learned?

    March 17, 2021

    The effect of COVID-19 on the law has been transformative and wide-ranging, but as a Harvard Law School panel pointed out on the one-year anniversary of campus shutdown, the changes haven’t all been for the worse.

  • The White House after a heavy snowfall

    More Harvard Law faculty and alumni tapped to serve in the Biden administration

    February 19, 2021

    Since President Joe Biden took office in January, dozens of Harvard Law community members, including faculty and alumni, have been tapped to serve in high-profile positions in his administration

  • Rear view of a man wearing medical mask placing a sign saying:

    How COVID-19 has changed the workplace in 2020

    September 8, 2020

    Sharon Block and Ben Sachs of Harvard Law School's Labor and Worklife Program discuss COVID-19’s continued impact on the workplace and worker’s rights to a safe and healthy work environment.

  • James R. Hoffa and Charles

    The Stepfather, Parts I, II and III

    December 19, 2019

    Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance remains a mystery. Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith set out to solve it through the primary suspect — his beloved stepfather, from whom he had been estranged for 20 years.

  • Mary L. Gray speaking to a room full of people

    The hidden labor supporting algorithms

    July 3, 2019

    Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Fellow Mary Gray, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, talks about her book “Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass."

  • Richard Barbecho ’19, the 2019 Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Award winner.

    Richard Barbecho wins the Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award

    May 17, 2019

    Richard Barbecho ’19 is this year’s winner of the Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award, granted each year in honor of Professor Andrew Kaufman, who spearheaded the pro bono requirement at Harvard Law School.

  • HLS celebrates National Pro Bono Week 1

    HLS celebrates National Pro Bono Week

    October 22, 2018

    As part of national Pro Bono Week, from Oct. 22 to Oct. 27, Harvard Law School's Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs is highlighting the work of outstanding attorneys engaged in critical pro bono legal work in the areas of immigration, civil rights, economic justice and climate change.

  • What do we really know about trade and labor?: A discussion in the shadow of NAFTA negotiations 1

    What do we really know about trade and labor?

    September 21, 2018

    On August 31, Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program, in collaboration with the University of Reading, organized a workshop on the “Past and Future of Labor Provisions in the Context of Trade.”

  • A 'Clean Slate' for the future of labor law

    A ‘Clean Slate’ for the future of labor law

    August 1, 2018

    In July, Harvard’s Labor and Worklife Program began an ambitious effort to fix a broken system of labor laws. The program, with the overall title “Rebalancing Economic and Political Power: A Clean Slate for the Future of Labor Law,” began with a daylong seminar at Wasserstein Hall last month.