Sugar Law Center

Detroit, MI

This is the 2025 fellowship description for this organization.

The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice is a national, nonprofit law center founded in 1991. Sugar Law provides legal assistance, advocacy, and technical support to individuals, community organizations, unions, attorneys, and other people who are working for economic and social justice. Depending upon the issue and campaign, we offer legal advice, technical support, and organizational assistance in grassroots efforts. In other instances, we offer direct legal representation or referrals to cooperating attorneys skilled in specific fields. We also engage in public education around important issues of economic justice.

Our principal project areas address workplace justice and community justice issues. Within workplace justice, our work focuses on wage theft, workplace discrimination, the rights of persons facing job loss, and support to organizing campaigns. In recent years, our community justice work has focused on community benefits during large-scale development projects (first source hiring, living wages & environmental mitigations), and other issues in economically distressed communities. In all our project areas, our clients are principally low-income workers, unions, and the grass roots community groups.

Under the supervision of our legal director and lead attorney, the Peggy Browning Fellow will be principally engaged in legal research and writing in support of litigation and public advocacy initiatives on wage theft, contingent worker issues, workplace discrimination, unrepresented workers' Sec. 7 rights, unemployment insurance, mass layoffs, and constitutional rights issues. The Fellow will undertake client intakes, public outreach, and/or community engagement assignments. Additional work will involve factual development, research and investigation in support of litigation and public advocacy campaigns. Depending on scheduling, the Fellow may have the opportunity to attend and observe depositions, court conferences, and/or administrative hearings. The Fellow may also have the opportunity to conduct an administrative hearing in contested unemployment insurance matters.

Applicants should possess excellent research, writing and oral communication skills. Successful applicants must have a demonstrated commitment to the rights of working people and be committed to working within diverse communities. Fluency in Spanish is helpful, but not required.

The total ten-week stipend for this fellowship will be $7,000.

Address cover letter to:
John Philo, Executive & Legal Director
Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice
4605 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201