Women's Employment Rights Clinic

Fall 2007 WERC Students: Back row, from left: Claudia Vila, Kara Farina, Julie Mercer, April Bogler, and Katie Gallagher. Front row: Cara Panebianco, Vanessa Candelaria, and Betty Kwan.

About the Clinic

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 job is to train the next generation of advocates for the working poor. WERC operates an on-campus law office, staffed by faculty, graduate fellows and students, and 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, and pregnancy and family/medical leave. We have a special emphasis of issues affecting Asian American and Latina workers, particularly garment workers.

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 to serve as members of a 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 Graduate Law Fellow, a new admittee to the California Bar, helps both the students and the attorneys with casework. The staff also includes the Clinic Administrative Assistant, Fe Gonzalez.

Read San Francisco Chronicle article about one of the clinic's clients.