The AFL-CIO Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee is a professional association of union-side labor lawyers affiliated with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, a labor union federation better known as the AFL-CIO. The group has described itself as the “legal department” of the federation. [1]
Background
The AFL-CIO Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee is a professional association of union-side labor lawyers affiliated with the AFL-CIO labor union federation. It has more than 2,100 union affiliated attorneys in 500 firms across the United States. [2]
Most labor unions have in-house legal counsel at the local and national level, but independent union-side labor law firms supplement the work of in-house union legal counsels. Many of these union-side lawyers are associated with the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. [3]
To qualify to be part of a network, a lawyer must represent AFL-CIO-affiliated unions, and devote more than 50 percent of his or her practice to labor law. [4]
The areas of focus for the committee include human rights, civil liberties, legal assistance, LGBTQ rights, and research. [5]
Student Outreach Program
The Lawyers Coordinating Committee has a “Student Outreach Project” that promotes union-side labor law to students at law schools. Lawyers in the organization attend career fairs to speak with students. Part of this program includes the “Minority Outreach Program,” the “Law Student Union Summer” program, the “AFL-CIO Law Fellowship,” and the “LCC Hiring Hall.” [6]
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka spoke to the law students in the organization’s program in June 2018, telling them to “be at the forefront of activism. [7]