Justice at Work is governed by a volunteer board of directors with expertise in labor and employment law, immigrants’ rights, and labor and community organizing. The attorneys and organizers on our board have deep personal and professional ties to immigrant and working class communities.
Lew has been an organizer in faith-based community organizations since 1990, when he became Director of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network (MCAN), the umbrella organization for six faith-based community organizations in Massachusetts cities. He served as founding co-director and Steering Committee member of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and worked with clergy to found Worcester Interfaith, Pioneer Valley Project (Springfield), United Interfaith Action of Southeastern Massachusetts, and Vermont Interfaith Action. MCAN is a founder and Steering Committee member of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition, which led the campaigns to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts in 2014 and 2018, to pass earned sick days in 2014, and to mandate paid family medical leave in 2018. MCAN was critical in passing the Fair Share for Massachusetts ballot measure to raise $2 billion for education and transportation by raising taxes on millionaires.
Leo Gertner practices labor, employee benefits, and wage and hour law at the law firm of Friedman & Anspach in New York. He advises unions and their pension and health funds in various matters. Leo also represents union members and their families in housing, immigration, consumer credit, real estate, and matrimonial matters. He previously worked at the Service Employees International Union as a Norm Gleichman Law Fellow and as a staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project in Washington, D.C. Leo received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, which he attended on a public interest scholarship. Prior to law school, he worked as a union grievance representative working with janitors and security officers throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire for SEIU Local 615 (now 32BJ). He has published opinion pieces on labor and politics in the Washington Post, In These Times, New York Daily News, and The American Prospect. Leo speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese, and intermediate French. Leo joined the Justice at Work Board in 2024.
Jessie is the Senior Labor and Employment Policy Attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, where she engages in legislative and administrative advocacy focused on protecting and expanding the rights of low-wage immigrant workers. She also provides legal analysis and strategic advice to support immigrant worker advocates around the country on legal and policy matters affecting immigrants in the workplace. Previously, Jessie was the Deputy Director of Legal & Investigation in the Paid Sick Leave Division of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, an attorney with the New York State Department of Labor, and Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner for Worker Protection in the New York State Department of Labor. She is a graduate of Reed College and Northeastern University School of Law, where she received a Public Interest Law Scholarship. At Northeastern, she researched the legal needs of workers centers, and joined co-founders Ingrid Nava and Thomas Smith in brainstorming the creation of Justice at Work. Follow Jessie on Twitter at @hahn_jessie.
Carol directs Northeastern University Law Schools’ Legal Skills in Social Context program, as well as teaching students in the program. She has also taught Employment Law and supervised the Poverty Law and Practice Clinic. She began her legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Gerald Gillerman of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and then worked for several years as an associate at the Boston firm Stern, Shapiro, Weissberg and Garin before serving as a staff attorney in the Employment Unit at Greater Boston Legal Services for six years. She also had her own firm for two years, providing research and writing services to other attorneys. Professor Mallory joined the Justice at Work board in 2020.
José Palma is a Senior Organizer at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) where he coordinates the National TPS Alliance. Before relocating his family from Massachusetts to Texas and joining NDLON in 2023, José was the Community and Legal Partnerships Coordinator at Justice at Work, beginning in 2017. In 2019, he took a leave of absence to lead a national campaign to demand permanent residency for TPS-holders in the face of the Trump Administration’s threats. Born in Usulután, El Salvador, José came to the U.S. in 1998. He earned his A.S. in Paralegal Studies at North Shore Community College in 2011, which included an internship at Greater Boston Legal Services. Before joining Justice at Work in 2017, José was the Political and Organizing Director for Neighbor-To-Neighbor. He has also worked with Centro Presente and the Student Immigrant Movement and is the co-founder of the Massachusetts TPS Committee.
Julio is a carpenter with years of experience working in low-paying jobs, including seafood processing. He has been a part of the immigrant and worker organizing community for over a decade, starting with his leadership in the New Bedford chapter of the Student Immigrant Movement and continuing today with his involvement with the Brazilian Worker Center’s Building Justice Committee. He has volunteered with Justice at Work since our founding, helping to organize fundraising events in addition to surveying workers in community meetings. A native of Guatemala, Julio has fit his organizing and volunteering efforts in around full-time construction work, now as the owner of JR Framing and Construction. He joined the Justice at Work board in 2021.
Monica is a Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law where she teaches Property, Family Law, and Race & the Foundations of American Law. Prior to joining the RWU Law faculty in 2022, Monica was a tenured professor at New England Law Boston where she created and served as the director of the First Generation Students Program. Before her academic career, Monica was a staff attorney at Rhode Island Legal Services, where she began practicing in 2002 as a Skadden Fellow and created a school-based legal clinic at her former elementary school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She represented parents and students in school discipline and special education cases, as well as public benefits, family law, and housing issues. Monica has served as a member of the Rhode Island College Upward Bound Program Alumni Scholarship Committee since 2013. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Cape Verdean American Lawyers Association. Monica earned her JD from Georgetown University Law Center in 2002 and her BA from Brown University in 1998. She joined Justice at Work’s Board in 2022.
