Wertheim Fund Labor Law Academic Fellowship
Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program invites applications for appointment as a Wertheim Fund Labor Law Academic Fellow. Wertheim Fund Labor Law Academic Fellows are promising labor lawyers with high academic achievements, a commitment to advancing labor law scholarship, and a strong interest in teaching. The Fellows will devote themselves to scholarship in preparation for entry into the teaching market and will contribute to the intellectual life of the Labor & Worklife Program.
Fellows’ research topics must relate to how labor law is evolving in response to innovative forms of labor management relations or to changes in the labor markets. Topics may include legal status of privately negotiated processes for organizing and recognizing unions; state, local or international approaches to labor law innovation; new forms of workplace organization, including those that rely not on the National Labor Relations Act but on other statutory regimes; the intersection of labor and immigration law; mechanisms for consideration of worker interests in the political process; and legal responses to changes in the labor market, including processes for collective action among people who derive income from the “gig economy.”
It is assumed that the bulk of the Fellow’s time will be devoted to scholarship. Professor Benjamin Sachs, Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry, will provide mentoring for the fellow and facilitate mentoring relationships with other HLS faculty. In addition, the Fellow will be expected to collaborate with the Executive Director of the Labor & Worklife Program Sharon Block on labor-law related programming conducted throughout the fellowship year. Fellows will have the opportunity to present their research findings in a Labor and Worklife Program-sponsored event during the fellowship year.
The program anticipates providing one, two-year fellowship commencing in the fall of 2020. The fellowship stipend will be approximately $65,000 per year.
A J.D. degree is required. Experience practicing labor or employment is not required, but will be considered favorably. To apply, submit a cover letter; your resume and law school transcript; two or three letters of recommendation, one of which should be from a recommender familiar with your experience practicing labor and employment law, if applicable; and one scholarly writing sample. Either your cover letter or a separate research agenda should discuss in detail the research project(s) you intend to undertake as a fellow. Applications are due by January 17, 2020 for the 2020-21 term, and should be sent to: Wertheim Academic Fellowship Harvard Law School 50 Church Street, Floor 3 Cambridge, MA 02138 or via email to lwp@law.harvard.edu (subject line: Wertheim Academic Fellowship).
