Program Schedule
View the 2026 NLSWRC program schedule, plenary and workshop descriptions, and speaker biographies below.
2026 NLSWRC Program Schedule
*Plenaries and workshop sessions will be updated as they are finalized
Friday, October 16th, 2026
| 11am - 6pm | NLSWRC Registration & Check In |
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MCC Front Desk Foyer
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| 12noon - 1pm | 2026 Fellows Lunch *open to 2026 Summer Fellows only* |
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Chesapeake Dining Room
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| 1:30pm - 3pm | 2026 Fellows Wrap Up Session *open to 2026 Summer Fellows only* |
| Speakers: To Be Announced! | |
| Classroom 2 | |
| 1:30pm - 3pm | Student Networking Session *Open to non-Fellowship student attendees* |
| Casual networking for early arrivals. | |
| A111/A113 | |
| 5pm - 6:30pm | PBF Community Dinner *all are welcome!* |
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Chesapeake Dining Room
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| 6pm - 7:30pm | PBF Community Cocktails & Desert Reception |
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Auditorium Foyer
(Snacks, soda, water, desserts provided by PBF—cash bar also available)
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| 7:15pm - 7:30pm | 2026 NLSWRC Opening Remarks | |
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Auditorium
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| 7:30pm - 8:45pm | Friday Night Plenary | A Conversation with Gwynne Wilcox, Fred Feinstein, & Richard F. Griffin, Jr, Moderated by Maneesh Sharma |
| Auditorium |
Saturday, October 17th, 2026
| 6:30am - 9am | Open Breakfast |
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Chesapeake Dining Room
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| 8:00am - 9:30am | Saturday Only Registration |
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Outside of Auditorium
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| 9:30am - 10:45am | Workshop Session 1 | - MCC Classrooms |
| Intro to Basic Labor Law | Jay Smith & Jessica Drangel Ochs | Classroom 2 | |
| Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers | Ingrid Nava & Andrew Lyubarsky | Auditorium | |
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Beyond the Paycheck: Building a Career Protecting Workers’ Health and Retirement and Other Benefits | Lisa Gomez & guest | A302 |
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| Intro to Public Sector Labor Law | Michael Artz | A302 | |
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Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting Your Labor Career | Treyvon Jordan, David Jury, & Alex Roe | Classroom 1 |
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| Federal Labor Law 101: What Every Union-Side Lawyer Should Know about the FLRA | Suzanne Summerlin | A303 | |
| Networking Room | A304 | |
| 11am - 12:15pm | Workshop Session 2 | - MCC Classrooms |
| Intro to Basic Labor Law | Jay Smith & Jessica Drangel Ochs | Classroom 2 | |
| Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers | Ingrid Nava & Andrew Lyubarsky | Auditorium | |
| Beyond the Paycheck: Building a Career Protecting Workers’ Health and Retirement and Other Benefits | Lisa Gomez & guest | Classroom 1 | |
| Intro to Public Sector Labor Law | Michael Artz | A302 | |
| Lawyers of Color in the Movement | Emily Liu, Aiko Marcial, Jordan Jain & Tyler Pearce | A303 | |
| Capital Strategies | Erik Forman, Jennifer O’Dell, & Tejal Patel | A100 | |
| Networking Room | A304 | |
| 12:15pm - 1:30pm | Lunch Break |
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Chesapeake Dining Room
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| 1:30pm - 2:45pm | Saturday Afternoon Plenary | AI & The Labor Movement |
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Auditorium
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| 3pm - 4:15pm |
Workshop Session 3 | - MCC Classrooms |
| Solidarity Boot Camp | Nicholas Gliechman, Bridget Daley, Elliott Becker & Matt Bruenig | Classroom 2 | |
| Lawyers of Color in the Movement | Emily Liu, Aiko Marcial, Jordan Jain & Tyler Pearce | A303 | |
| Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting your Labor Career | Treyvon Jordan, David Jury, & Alex Roe | Classroom 1 | |
| 10 Years of Graduate Student Organizing | Andy Hull, Eamon Coburn, & Zach Angulo | A302 | |
| Trade & Labor Law | Ben Davis | A100 | |
| 4:30pm | 2026 NLSWRC Closing Remarks |
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Auditorium
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Plenary & Workshop Descriptions
Thank you to our Program Sponsors IUE-CWA and Pitta LLP.
Friday Night Plenary | A Conversation with Gwynne Wilcox, Fred Feinstein, & Richard F. Griffin, Jr., moderated by Maneesh Sharma
Description to follow shortly.
Saturday Afternoon Plenary | 2026 Plenary Topic: AI & the Labor Movement
Description to follow shortly.
Workshops
Intro to Basic Labor Law | This workshop covers an overview of the basic concepts of labor law, focusing on the National Labor Relations Act, its primary purposes, its structure, and its administration by the National Labor Relations Board, with a little bit of labor law history thrown in for good measure. Also covered briefly is the labor arbitration system and its enforcement in federal courts.
Intro to Public Sector Labor Law | Public sector workers, employed by the federal government, cities, towns, school boards, states and other public entities, work under a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction legal system that offers twists and turns not always found in the private sector. This workshop provides an overview of public sector labor law and how it differs from private sector law; discuss the types of attacks that conservative legislatures and governors have undertaken against public sector unions; and highlight the new and creative ways of organizing in the public sphere.
Beyond the Paycheck: Building a Career Protecting Workers’ Health and Retirement and Other Benefits | A worker’s economic security depends on far more than wages. Health coverage can determine whether a family can afford necessary care. Retirement benefits can shape whether someone can retire with dignity. Training programs can open the door to a lasting career. These benefits are earned compensation, frequent subjects of collective bargaining, and a critical part of protecting workers and their families.Yet employee benefits remains one of the least understood areas of worker protection laws. It is also a field in need of the next generation of advocates -- unions, union-side law firms, jointly administered benefit funds, and government agencies -- are actively seeking lawyers committed to protecting workers’ benefits. This workshop will introduce students to Taft-Hartley labor-management benefit plans, ERISA, and related laws through the real work benefits lawyers do. We will explore how lawyers help workers obtain promised benefits, advise unions and benefit funds, serve in government agencies, negotiate and design benefit programs, oversee plan governance, address fiduciary and funding issues, and respond when workers’ health or retirement security is at risk. Students will leave with a practical understanding of the field, the career paths it offers, and why employee benefits law belongs at the heart of the workers’ rights movement.
Lawyers of Color in the Movement | In 2023, the ABA released shocking demographic information that revealed the American legal profession is disproportionately white. Due to various socioeconomic pressures, this disparity is even more present in the various fields of public interest law, including labor and employment. This workshop will feature a panel of young attorneys of color in the labor and employment field, all of whom were recent Peggy Browning Fellows themselves. At this workshop, the panelists will discuss the importance of attorneys of color in the labor movement, their own paths to becoming legal advocates for workers’ rights, and how they handle(d) various barriers and issues unique to being a person of color in a predominantly white profession. The goals of this workshop are to share information and resources; to create a space for law students of color to feel seen and welcomed; and, most importantly, to encourage these Fellows to stay the course and continue to push the labor movement forward.
Protecting and Organizing Immigrant Workers | The labor movement and the fight for workers’ rights now more than ever revolve around immigrants’ rights. At the same time, the effort to protect the rights of immigrants frequently depends upon workplace and labor organizing. This workshop will give an overview of the challenges that immigrant workers face when they attempt to form a union or enforce other workplace rights. The workshop will also discuss legal, policy, legislative and grassroots strategies for overcoming those challenges.
Getting in the Door: Paths to Starting Your Labor Career | Finding your way to a career representing labor unions can be daunting because positions do not open on a regular schedule and the type of work involved from one position to another can vary widely. As a result, law students may be unnerved by the unpredictability of the union lawyer career path. However, there are steps students can take to increase their chances of finding a position where they are likely to thrive. Hear from panelists who have traveled this road and have since found themselves on the other side of the hiring process. You will receive job search and resume building tips as well as reassurance as you look toward graduation and beyond.
Trade & Labor Law | For decades, the labor movement has fought the dominant, neoliberal model of free trade. Trade has put workers into labor cost competition around the globe. Off-shoring of bargaining unit work and resultant plant closings has caused a precipitous drop in private sector union representation. Racial and other minorities have borne a disproportionate share of this downward spiral. The Trump administration approach to trade, however, has not been an improvement. It has functionally eliminated recent free trade agreements, which had created leverage for improving labor standards and enforcement by harnessing trade sanctions to respond to workers' rights violations by foreign countries and businesses. This workshop will examine trade and investment-related mechanisms and supply chain initiatives for implementing workers’ rights around the world, aimed at turning the negative impact of trade toward positive uses of trade leverage on behalf of working people of all races, nationalities and identities. It will consider what remains of older and more recent models of trade-labor linkage in light of the Trump administration's more ad hoc approach to global trade.
Federal Labor Law 101: What Every Union-Side Lawyer Should Know About the FLRA | This workshop introduces the unique world of federal sector labor law. Attendees will learn about the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, how the FLRA operates, and how union-side lawyers advocate for workers in a legal framework that excludes strikes and relies on administrative enforcement. We’ll cover ULPs, bargaining rights, and the role of executive orders, plus real-world examples from ongoing fights over telework, reassignments, and union access.
Solidarity Boot Camp | This interactive workshop features a mix of veteran lawyers and organizers discussing labor organizing and the law. The workshop will cover best practices as well as pitfalls in fostering and maintaining trust with labor organizers in the field. Attendees will be asked to think critically about how to move like an organizer and think like a lawyer. Finally, the workshop will explore ideas to bring solidarity skills to the wider justice movement.
Capital Strategies | Description to follow. Unions are working to leverage their capital for corporate accountability and to strengthen the union. Learn more from lawyers in the field on this subject and the policy work, private equity and corporate governance litigation for union pension funds.
Columbia: A Ten-Year Retrospective | This panel traces the development of graduate student worker organizing and employee status for graduate student workers under the National Labor Relations Act since 2016. The speakers will address the legal landscape and strategic challenges involved in graduate student worker organizing and collective bargaining as well as the potential futures for both.
Workshops will be held in the MCC Classrooms space.
Zachary Angulo | Zach Angulo is an attorney at Shanley, APC, where he represents Carpenters-affiliated unions, Taft-Hartley funds, and their related entities. Zach has advised worker-leaders in various sectors, including construction, technology, higher education, and government. He was an Editor for The Campaign Guide: Organizing and Contract Enforcement in the Construction Industry, published by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). Prior to practicing law, Zach served as Research Committee Chair for Northwestern University Graduate Workers, Head Steward and Contract Enforcement Chair of UAW Local 2865, and Leader of the Berkeley Law and Organizing Collective. While attending the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, he was a Peggy Browning Fellow at the UAW International in Detroit, Michigan. His note, The NLRB and Graduate-Worker Employee Status: Past, Present, and Future, won the Thelen Marrin Prize for Best Published Article in the Class of 2021.
Julian Arnold | Jillian Arnold is the IATSE Labor & Technology Intelligence Officer. In this capacity, she is working to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and emerging technology’s role in the workplace, while maintaining the ideology that television and films are made authentically, for humans by humans. Jillian’s career launched in the aerospace industry at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has participated in JPL’s Juno orbital insertion, Cassini's farewell, and Mars Curiosity Landing. Jillian has participated in over a dozen missions, spanning the entire solar system. As an award-winning video engineer, Jillian specializes in recording workflow engineering, digital acquisition, and media management. She is one of the few experts in this lucrative, technically progressive area of live television. These shows include the FIFA Halftime show, MTV VMAs, the Emmys, the Oscars, Grease Live, NFL Honors, and more. In 2020, Jillian became the first woman and the first video engineer to be elected president of IATSE Local 695 in the local’s ninety-five year history. She is a member the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Cal Tech’s Athenaeum. Jillian has a BA from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and an MFA from Chapman University.
Michael Artz | Michael Artz is an Associate General Counsel at the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Throughout his legal career he has represented labor unions, health and pension funds and individuals before courts, administrative agencies and arbitrators. He also developed, planned, implemented and supervised Presidential election voter protection programs in Virginia and Nevada. He received his undergraduate degree from Miami University (Ohio) and graduated cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he also teaches legal rhetoric and writing as a law professor. He clerked for the Honorable Stephanie Duncan-Peters in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, then served as a legal fellow for the Service Employees International Union and as an associate attorney at Mooney, Green, Baker & Saindon in Washington, D.C. He was a Peggy Browning Fellow in 2000 and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the External Committee for the Peggy Browning Fund's Board of Directors.
Elliott Becker | Elliott Becker has been doing labor law for over ten years, working at UNITE HERE! Local 2 and the Culinary 226, as well as Deats, Durst, and Owen, PLLC during law school summers, and at the Equal Justice Center during and after law school. Subsequently, he worked for SEIU as a law fellow, and then in the General Counsel's office at the National Labor Relations Board, first in the Honors program, and then in the Contempt, Compliance and Special Litigation Branch. He has been working for the Communication Workers of America since 2022. He appears in his personal capacity.
Richard J. Brean | Since graduating from Harvard Law School, Richard Brean spent his entire career in the Legal Department of the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh. During his first ten years in the Legal Department, he maintained a general labor practice. Starting in 1988, he devoted the bulk of his practice to NLRB litigation involving unfair labor practice strikes and unlawful lockouts. From 2009 to 2018, Mr. Brean served as USW General Counsel. He also supervised litigation performed by “the Steelworker family” of outside law firms. A long-time member of the Peggy Browning Fund’s Board of Directors, he was elected Chair in 2015. Mr. Brean is passionate about encouraging law students to pursue careers in public and private practice defending the rights of working people.
Matt Bruenig | Matt Bruenig is a labor lawyer who has worked for the National Labor Relations Board, IAM, SEIU, and UFCW. He is now in solo practice where he provides outside counsel to various unions and individuals. He also runs NLRBResearch.com, a labor law reference website, and NLRBEdge.com, a newsletter covering legal developments at the NLRB
Eamon Coburn | Eamon Coburn is an associate at O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue, where he assists union and Taft-Hartley fund clients in traditional labor law and employee benefits law matters. While attending Yale Law School, Eamon served as a Peggy Browning Fellow for the New York State United Teachers and as an intern for the National Labor Relations Board. He was a graduate worker-organizer for Local 33-UNITE HERE and Steward for NTEU Chapter 335. His note, Intertemporal Collective-Action Problems in Graduate-Worker Organizing, analyzes how the law can assist graduate-worker organizing efforts and explores its implications for the broader labor movement. Prior to his legal career, Eamon was an analyst at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and was detailed to the White House Economic Council.
Bridget Daley | Bridget Daley is a Lead Organizer with SEIU Local 32BJ. She has been organizing low wage workers across the east coast for the last 11 years. She began her career with organizing Fast Food workers across New England as a part of the Fight for $15 movement. Since working with 32BJ her work has focused on their groundbreaking airport contractor organizing campaigns. Since moving to Maryland she has worked closely with anti poverty organizations in Baltimore to make real systemic change in the city. Her passion for training, development, and political education of both staff and members has supported the successful unionization of thousands of airport contractor members in the Northeast, Mid Atlantic, and the South.
Samantha Dulaney | Samantha Dulaney is General Counsel for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE). In 2008, Ms. Dulaney was named as the first in-house counsel in the IATSE General Office. With a membership of over 150,000, IATSE is the largest labor union representing behind-the-scenes workers in the entertainment and related industries. In her role, Ms. Dulaney assists in contract negotiation with some of America’s largest entertainment industry employers and provides assistance to union representatives on behalf of 360 IATSE local unions. She holds a Master’s degree in Letters of Law from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. Ms. Dulaney is currently a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance and the co-chair of the Internal Committee for the Peggy Browning Fund's Board of Directors.
Nicholas J Gleichman | Nicholas J Gleichman: has been a union counsel since becoming a lawyer 2016, representing workers at various state courts and agencies including the NLRB and PERB. Currently he works in the legal department of SEIU Local 1000, representing 10 different bargaining units of California state workers. previously, he has represented SEIU international as well as workers in the fight for fifteen campaign. He is also the president of UAW Local 2350. He has a great fondness for the Orioles and is considered an expert river rafter by several of his own family members.
Lisa Gomez | Lisa Gomez is the founding member of LMG Collaborative Consulting Solutions, a consulting firm providing services in all areas related to employee benefit plans. Lisa has served as assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the United States Department of Labor. Previously, she was a partner and chair of the management committee at the law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP. Lisa has deep technical and practical experience in employee benefits law and has spent almost three decades representing various types of plans. As the head of the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), she was responsible for leading an agency with approximately 850 full-time employees nationwide and a budget of approximately $191 million and was charged with the safeguarding of the job-based retirement, health and other welfare benefits for more than 153 million American workers and retirees and their families. Through her leadership, EBSA oversaw approximately 2.6 million job-based health plans, 801,000 retirement plans, and 548,000 other welfare plans, with combined assets of nearly $12 trillion, in addition to the oversight of the federal Thrift Savings Program. Lisa has also served as a co-chair of the board of senior editors of the Bloomberg BNA treatise Employee Benefits Law. She also served in various leadership positions with the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Labor and Employment Law. She was a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. Lisa was inducted as a Fellow of The American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, Inc. in recognition of her decades of practice in employee benefits law and her contributions to the field. Lisa was also a member of the advisory board of The Peggy Browning Fund. She previously served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and as a volunteer mediator for the New Jersey state courts. She was a guest lecturer for the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Hofstra University School of Law on employee benefits. She was named as a Super Lawyer for Employee Benefits on the Super Lawyers New York Metro Annual Lists for 2021 and 2022. Lisa earned her law degree from the Fordham University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Hofstra University
Richard F. Griffin, Jr. | Dick Griffin has practiced labor law for more than 40 years, and has been Of Counsel to the firm since January 2018. He represents unions, employee benefit funds, labor-management cooperation trusts, and individuals, and serves as a mediator. He has also taught labor law, and is the co-author, with Seth Harris, Anne Lofaso, Charlotte Garden, and Joseph Slater, of Modern Labor Law in the Private and Public Sectors: Cases and Materials, 3rd Ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2021.Prior to joining Bredhoff & Kaiser, from November 4, 2013 through October 31, 2017, Dick was the Senate-confirmed General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), overseeing the prosecution of unfair labor practice cases and the defense of the Board’s decisions in court, culminating in his arguing Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis on the Board’s behalf in the Supreme Court. Before becoming NLRB General Counsel, Dick served as a recess-appointed NLRB Board Member from January 2012 through August 2013. For almost 28 years prior to his appointment as a Board Member, he worked in the legal department of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), serving as the union’s General Counsel for the last 17 of those years. While IUOE General Counsel, Dick was on the AFL-CIO Lawyers Advisory Panel and was a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. At the beginning of his legal career, from 1981 to 1983, Dick served as staff counsel to two NLRB Board Members. He is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and of the American Bar Foundation. He graduated from Yale College (BA 1977) and Northeastern University Law School (JD 1981).
Andrew Hull | Andrew Hull is an associate at Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davies & Rouco, LLP, where he practices traditional labor law and employee benefits law. While attending Emory University School of Law, he served as a double Peggy Browning Fellow. First for the Chicago News Guild and then at the Office of the General Counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in Washington, D.C. His article Caste Discrimination and the Imperfect Promise of Labor Arbitration draws on how recent collective bargaining agreements in academic labor unions have advanced anti-discrimination protections.While receiving his doctoral degree at Northwestern University, Andrew served as the inaugural Executive Co-Chair of Northwestern University Graduate Workers (UE 1122), during which he developed tactics and strategies to assist the organizing efforts of other graduate-worker campaigns at Brown University, the University of Chicago, Georgetown University, and New York University.
Treyvon Jordan | Treyvon Jordan is an associate attorney at Beins, Axelrod & Keating in Alexandria, VA, where he represents labor unions throughout the South. A native of South Carolina, he graduated from William & Mary Law School in 2024. After graduating, he joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) as their 2024–2025 Fellowship Lawyer. Treyvon’s career in labor began in 2021 with UNITE HERE Local 23/25, where he worked as a student organizer in Williamsburg, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. While in law school, he led committees with United Campus Workers of Virginia Local 2265 (CWA), focusing on lobbying the Virginia General Assembly to pass laws supporting public sector collective bargaining and affordable childcare. In 2023, he was a Peggy Browning Fellow at the Communications Workers of America. Prior to law school, Treyvon served as a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a veteran, he serves on the Board of Directors for Everyone for Veterans, a nonprofit providing dental care to low-income veterans with limited access to services.In addition to his professional work, Treyvon is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), where he volunteers as a legal observer and jail visit attorney. He also organizes with Veterans About Face, a group of post-9/11 military members challenging U.S. imperialist actions that lead to permanent war.
David Jury | David Jury is General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, a position he has held since October 2017. David has worked in the USW’s Legal Department in Pittsburgh since 1996 and has appeared regularly before federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts and in NLRB proceedings. As General Counsel, he advises the union’s officers and participates in bargaining in many of the union’s major industrial sectors. A graduate of The George Washington University Law School, he is the co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Peggy Browning Fund.
Joe Lurie | Joseph Lurie, Founder and President of the Peggy Browning Fund, retired in 2010 as the Senior Partner in the law firm of Galfand Berger in Philadelphia, PA. His practice included union side labor, workers’ compensation and products liability cases. Some of the cases he handled have set national precedents. Mr. Lurie successfully represented injured workers before the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He tried several hundred cases in the County Court systems and various Federal District Courts throughout Pennsylvania. A member of the American Trial Lawyers Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Associations, he has written and lectured extensively. Mr. Lurie is the founder of three non-profit agencies: The Pennsylvania Federation of Injured Workers, a support group for men and women who have been injured at work; Peggy Browning Fund, a memorial to his late wife, Margaret A. Browning, to educate law students on the rights and needs of workers; and Kids’ Chance of Pennsylvania, a scholarship fund for children of workers who have been seriously injured or killed while at work.
Andrew Lyubarsky | Andrew Lyubarsky has been an Associate General Counsel at the AFL-CIO since June 2022, where he has assisted in amicus filings resisting the constitutional attacks on the NLRB’s authority. Prior to joining the AFL-CIO, he was an immigration attorney at a New York City-area public defender, representing detained immigrants, and prior to that, had worked for Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC, a DC-area labor law firm. He has clerked for judges on the Second Circuit and the Southern District of New York, and is a 2016 graduate of New York University School of Law. When in law school, he was a Peggy Browning Fellow at Levy Ratner, P.C. in New York City.
Aiko Marcial | Aiko Marcial Rivera (she/her/ella) graduated from American University, Washington College of Law. During law school, she received two Peggy Browning Fellowships where she was a Law Clerk with AFSCME and a Summer Associate at a union-side firm. Aiko began clerking at the IAM (“Machinist”) National Pension Fund during her last year in law school continuing to work there after graduation where her work consisted of withdrawal liability and collections litigation. She is currently with Pitre & Associates, LLC where she assists in litigation matters for federal and private sector employees with EEO complaints, Title VII, disciplinary issues, and MSPB appeals.
Ingrid Nava | Ingrid Nava is Associate General Counsel for Service Employees International Union. Before this role, she was Associate General Counsel for SEIU Local 32BJ, 32BJ, the largest labor union for property services workers in the country and a union with a large immigrant membership. Ms. Nava is also a founding board member of Justice at Work, a legal services nonprofit organization serving immigrant worker centers in Massachusetts. She previously served as an employment lawyer for low-wage workers with Greater Boston Legal Services, where along with direct client representation, she provided legal counsel to immigrant worker centers. Prior to law school, Ms. Nava was an organizer for SEIU. She earned her JD from Northeastern University School of Law and her AB from Stanford University.
Jennifer O’Dell | Jennifer O’Dell is the Director of the LIUNA Corporate Affairs Department where she focuses on securities regulation, corporate governance reform, and leads the Union’s responsible investment program. Ms. O’Dell has lectured LIUNA benefit fund trustees on fiduciary duty and responsibility, capital stewardship and fund governance and recent developments in securities regulation. She works closely with Laborer pension funds to shape and drive efforts to ensure independent and accountable directors, reasonable executive compensation, and sound environmental, human resource, and other business policies at corporations. Serving the labor movement for nearly 30 years Ms. O’Dell has worked for several other international and local unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as the Union’s Senior Policy analyst, the United Steelworkers of America as a campaign strategist, the Service Employees International Union Local 1199P where she assisted in organizing over 2,000 nursing home workers and the United Auto Workers where she was a law clerk in the union’s legal department. Ms. O’Dell is a graduate of the University Of Toledo College Of Law in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated with honors from Saint Mary’s College of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) and Chair of the Labor Caucus. In her spare time, you can find her at Nationals Park supporting her favorite baseball team, the Washington Nationals.
Tejal Patel | Tejal is the Executive Director of the SOC Investment Group, which works with pension funds sponsored by unions affiliated with the Strategic Organizing Center. In her current role, she has worked with investors to develop strategies for issuer engagements, shareholder proposals, director accountability, and asset manager outreach. She also previously practiced law as a transactional attorney, representing institutional lenders and advised public and private companies on securities law related matters. She holds a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a MSc. from the London School of Economics.
Maneesh Sharma | Maneesh Sharma is an Associate General Counsel with the AFL-CIO. He focuses primarily on traditional labor law issues and internal governance matters for the federation. Prior to his current position, Maneesh served as an Associate General Counsel for both the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh, PA and the International Union, UAW in Detroit, MI. In those positions, he litigated matters before the NLRB and federal courts, as well as in arbitration, and advised on various collective-bargaining issues. He further worked on employee benefit matters, including retiree health care litigation. Maneesh is a member of the Board of Directors for the Peggy Browning Fund, and is active with the ABA’s Committee on Practice and Procedure under the NLRA. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Wesleyan University.
Jay Smith | A shareholder in Gilbert & Sackman in Los Angeles, Jay has represented labor unions and their members for 38 years. Previously a partner at Cooper, Mitch, Crawford, Kuykendall & Whatley in Alabama, Mr. Smith has represented the United Steelworkers for almost his entire legal career, and now serves as USW’s District Counsel for the eleven western states. He is also greatly honored to represent other militant and progressive labor organizations, including UNAC/UHCP, AFSCME, many IATSE Local Unions, AGVA, UNITE HERE Local 11, UFCW Local 324, many USW local unions and other local unions. He appears regularly in federal and state courts, before the NLRB and PERB, before arbitrators, and in collective bargaining negotiations. Jay also represents plaintiffs in class action litigation. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Alabama School of Law and has been a member of the Peggy Browning Fund’s Board of Directors since 2017.
Suzanne Summerlin | Suzanne Summerlin is a seasoned labor attorney with extensive experience in labor law, union advocacy, and workplace justice. She has represented a diverse range of federal employees across more than thirty agencies, including U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighters, Department of State passport processors, Veterans Administration medical professionals, and Transportation Security Administration security screeners. In 2017, Suzanne was lead counsel in a coalition lawsuit challenging restrictive executive orders under the first Trump administration, representing 13 unions in a case heard by now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her career also includes roles with the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and the Federation Education Association where she handled labor arbitrations, collective bargaining, and unfair labor practice hearings. Suzanne has led litigation, negotiated collective bargaining agreements and provided strategic legal guidance to federal employees worldwide. Recognized for her expertise, Suzanne was nominated by President Biden to serve as General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Her work reflects a steadfast commitment to protecting the rights of federal workers and empowering unions in complex and evolving legal landscapes.
Gwynne A. Wilcox | Gwynne A. Wilcox was renominated by President Joseph R. Biden and reconfirmed by the Senate on September 6, 2023 to serve a second term as a Board Member of the National Labor Relations Board ending August 27, 2028. Ms. Wilcox previously served as a Member of the Board from August 4, 2021 until August 27, 2023, and she served as Chair of the Board from December 17, 2024 to January 20, 2025. Ms. Wilcox is the first Black woman to serve on the Board since its inception in 1935, and is also the first Black woman to serve as Chair of the NLRB. On January 27, 2025, President Donald J. Trump removed Ms. Wilcox from the Board prior to her term’s expiration in 2028. Ms. Wilcox was the first Board Member to have been removed in 90 years of the Board's inception in 1935. Ms. Wilcox filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Washington, DC, against President Trump challenging her unprecedented and unlawful termination based upon current statutory law and well-established Supreme Court precedent. The case is still pending. Previous to her appointment to the Board, Wilcox was a senior partner at Levy Ratner, P.C., a New York City labor and employment law firm. While there, she served as Associate General Counsel of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and as a labor representative to the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining. Prior to joining Levy Ratner, she worked as a Field Attorney at Region 2 of the NLRB in Manhattan. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Wilcox was a Reginald Heber Smith Community Fellow at Middlesex County Legal Services office in New Brunswick, NJ and then continued as a Staff Attorney, handling domestic violence cases and other matters. Ms. Wilcox is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. She is the recipient of numerous awards. Most recently, Ms. Wilcox was the recipient on February 25, 2025 of a Certificate of Honor from the Rutgers University School-Newark Law School's Minority Student Program, the Association of Black Law Students, Phi Alpha Delta Fraternity, Inc.- Jackson Chapter, the American Constitutional Society and Student Bar Association, celebrating a "trailblazer whose dedication and leadership have elevated the distinction of Rutgers Law School [and] ..honors an unwavering commitment to service, impactful contributions and a role as a guiding force and inspiration for future generations." In 2023, Ms. Wilcox was recognized by the Rutgers University-Newark Law School Minority Student Program, and was the commencement speaker later that year. Ms. Wilcox has been the recipient of other awards, including the November 2021 Honorable Bernice B. Donald Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Legal Profession Award by the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. The award is given to a member, law firm, corporation, organization or academic institution “that has demonstrated leadership in and commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession," the 2017 Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation for Achievements “in honor of an exceptional career in law and dedication to advancing diversity”; the 2015 Basil Paterson Award at the Amsterdam News Labor Awards Breakfast; the 2015 Brandworkers’ Champion of Economic Justice Award; and the 2009 Peggy Browning Fund Lifetime Achievement Award. Prior to joining the Board, Ms. Wilcox was a board member of various organizations, including the Brandworkers; Peggy Browning Fund; Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution of the Cornell University ILR School; Workers Defense League; and the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, now known as the Union Lawyers Alliance. Ms. Wilcox has made numerous presentations concerning Board law at many bar associations and other organizations. Ms. Wilcox gave the 2023 David E. Feller Memorial Labor Law Lecture—Cemex: A New Framework for Union Representation Proceedings, https://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/ir/bjell/archive.php. Ms. Wilcox holds a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law-Newark and a B.A. from Syracuse University.
Melissa Woods | Melissa S. Woods is a Partner who focuses on negotiating and litigating labor and employment law matters on behalf of unions and individual employees, and represents unions and funds in employer bankruptcy proceedings. Melissa leads the firm’s harassment/discrimination prevention and DEI practice, where she shares her extensive experience investigating allegations of workplace misconduct – including discrimination, harassment and unethical activity – providing legal and strategic advice on policy matters and workplace culture, and creating and conducting discrimination and harassment prevention, implicit bias and racial sensitivity trainings.
The Peggy Browning Fund is committed to providing a harassment-free environment in all sponsored events and activities as defined in our code of conduct & values.
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