Women's Employment Rights Clinic

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Fall 2008 WERC clinicians	Spring 2009 clinician
Back, from left - Yvonne Li, Andrea Cianfrani, Brooke Miller, and Un Kei Wu. Front, from left - Givelle Lamano and Mark Dean.	Spring 09 Clinician Rebecca Cushman with client before the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS CLINIC VICTORY IN CHANGING SF CITY COLLEGE HIRING PRACTICES:
GGU's Women's Employment Rights Clinic (WERC), had a major victory on September 25th when the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees voted to change the college's hiring policies to comply with an Education Code requirement that it consider rehabilitation of job applicants with past drug convictions. WERC's former graduate fellow Nira Geevargis and former WERC students Margarita Calpotura, Paul Hogarth, Emily Hobbins, and Kara Farina helped bring about this change by participating in presentations to the CCSF Board, meetings with the Chancellor, legal research, or drafting proposed policy revision. Read more here.

WERC STUDENT SUCCESSFULLY REPRESENTS CLIENT IN COMPLEX UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE APPEAL A trip to visit his mother out of state over Thanksgiving resulted in fraud allegations and denial of unemployment insurance benefits for a client. The client extended his stay to help his mother who had developed complications after a routine surgery. The unemployment insurance agency found that the client was not eligible for benefits because he was not "able and available to work" even though he continued to search for work and took on a temporary assignment while he was at his mother's home. In addition, the agency found that the client had been fraudulent when he failed to disclose that he was out of state. With a week's notice of the hearing, WERC student representative Rebecca Cushman (Spring 2009) did a through job in obtaining declarations from witnesses, researching the cases and representing the client at the hearing. The Judge adopted Rebecca's analysis in overturning the agency's denial of benefits and fraud findings.
The Women's Employment Rights Clinic (WERC) of Golden Gate University School of Law believes that every worker has the right to decent wages and job conditions, and the law school's mission includes training the next generation of advocates for the working poor. WERC operates an on-campus law office, staffed by faculty and students. The clinic addresses issues affecting low wage and immigrant workers through public policy advocacy, direct service, impact litigation, amicus curiae filings and non-litigation projects including educational programs for community based organizations. We work in areas including wage and hour violations, discrimination, workplace harassment, unemployment benefits, pregnancy and family/medical leave, and employment rights of the formerly incarcerated.

In collaboration with community based organizations, labor organizations, and other advocacy groups, we identify ways that the law can serve as a tool to improve the working conditions of our client base. Learn more about our community partners. We mentor lawyers-to-be, particularly students from diverse backgrounds who want to work within their own communities, to give them the tools to advocate effectively for the rights of low wage and immigrant workers.

Clinic students have the opportunity to represent individual clients and may also be part of the litigation team in complex matters. The clinic students staff an advice hotline for callers with workplace problems, and the students and faculty handle ongoing cases and projects.

Law students work under the direct supervision of Clinic Director Marci Seville and Visiting Professor and Clinical Staff Attorney Hina Shah. The staff also includes the Clinic Administrative Assistant, Fe Gonzalez.

Alumni Magazine Article about the Women's Employment Rights Clinic Golden Gate University School of Law Class Action, Fall/Winter 2004