Judith Conti

2000

Judith Conti

The DC Employment Justice Center

http://www.dcejc.org

Washington D.C., United States

Civil and Human Rights, Legal Advocacy

The Bold Idea:

The mission of the D.C. Employment Justice Center is to secure, protect and promote workplace justice in the D.C. metropolitan area. The EJC combines legal services, community education, systemic reform advocacy, and community organizing to achieve workplace justice. It provides free and low-cost bilingual legal services to low-income workers in the metropolitan Washington area on employment law matters such as unpaid wages, discrimination, workplace injuries, unsafe working conditions, and unemployment compensation.

Through weekly Workers' Rights Clinics and in-house representation, the EJC's volunteer law students, paralegals and lawyers counsel more than 1,000 workers per year. The EJC has collected more than $2.5 million in back wages and benefits for clients and has trained more than 200 law students in legal skills, compassion and employment law since its founding in 2000.

Biography:

Upon her graduation from the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Judy was named the Outstanding Trial Advocate in her class, and accepted a judicial clerkship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Wisconsin. Realizing that stable and dignified employment for parents leads to security and opportunities for their children, Judy moved to Washington, D.C. to begin her career as an advocate for working men and women.

After several years of advocating for low-wage workers before Congress and other government entities, Judy became frustrated that there was no organization in D.C. devoted to the employment legal needs of low-wage workers, and created the D.C. Employment Justice Center in 1999. In addition to her work at the EJC, Judy has served on the Steering Committee of the D.C. Bar’s Labor and Employment Law Section, as an Adjunct Professor at William and Mary Law School, Catholic University, and Williams College, teaching labor law and Philanthropy. Judy is also a member of the William and Mary Law School Association Board of Directors.

I’ll Be There Award from Jobs With Justice
2005

Francis Perkins Award from the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section
2005

Public Service Award from Williams College D.C. Alumni Association
2004

Inductee to the Public Interest Hall of Fame
2003

OMB Watch

Attorney of the Year from the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association
2002-2003

Leadership