The AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance is a professional organization of approximately 2,000 labor movement lawyers around the United States. We provide continuing legal education, networking, and other support to help ensure that AFL-CIO affiliated labor unions have access to excellent legal representation. The AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC)–a network of approximately 1,900 union-side attorneys representing unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO—created the LCC Diversity, Outreach, Opportunities, and Recruitment (DOOR) program to encourage law students of color to apply for summer clerkship opportunities at LCC law firms and legal departments around the country. The outreach program seeks to introduce minority law students to the practice of law in the labor movement and to encourage them to join the ranks of union-side attorneys in the ongoing battle for social and economic justice. Interested students should apply to the firms or legal departments directly, using the contact information provided in each posting. Students of color should reference the DOOR program in their correspondence. New employers are continually added to the list.
To enhance their summer experience, students participate in the LCC DOOR Law Clerk Networking Conference, which features workshops and presentations on labor law practice, union organizing and representation, politics and legislation. The conference is two days and usually held on the second weekend in June at the AFL-CIO Headquarters in Washington, DC. The program often includes the following panels: Researching Labor Law, Introduction to Labor Law, The State of the Labor Movement, Labor Law Practice Areas, Social Justice, Organizing and the Law, Union-Side Labor Practice: Contract Enforcement, Finding a Job as Union-Side Labor Lawyer, the ULA Minority Outreach and Mentor Program, Law School Recruiting, NLRB Practice and Immigration.
If you have any questions or comments about the ULA DOOR Program, please contact Alex Roe, ULA Managing Counsel, at aroe@aflcio.org.