2020 Peggy Browning Summer Fellows

2020 Peggy Browning Summer Fellows James Mason JD’21 Southern University Law Center Baton Rouge, LA Los Angeles Black Worker Center Los Angeles, CA James is a third-year evening student fromArcadia, LA. He decided to attend law school to use his writing and oratory skills to help people from underrepresented groups. James has always been passionate about social and economic equality for African Americans. Since the start of law school, he had a strong interest in employment law. With his scientific background, James has a focus in the protection of employee patents and trade secrets. As a law student, he is a teaching assistant for the Board of Student Advisors, interned for the Urban League of Louisiana, and clerked for a local law firm. James has worked for Louisiana’s Community & Technical Colleges System while in law school and contributed in establishing S.T.E.M and other career technical education programs to strengthen Louisiana’s workforce. Shelby McCarty JD’22 Rutgers Law School Camden, NJ Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 19 Philadelphia, PA Growing up with a union representative father, labor rights was discussed frequently at home. While law school was always the goal, it was taking classes for her Human Resource Management major that helped her realize she could pursue this same subject matter on a higher level. Additionally, while working numerous customer service jobs throughout the years, she knew that labor law was crucial to bettering the lives of workers everywhere. Shelby served as the 1L representative for the Rutgers Employment and Labor Law Association where she organized events on campus with local attorneys in the area to help educate other students in this field of work. She is excited to have the opportunity to pursue her career interests while working with a union this summer. Karenna Martin JD’21 New York University School of Law New York, NY Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) New York, NY As the daughter of two public school teachers and union representatives, Karenna’s desire was fueled to become a labor lawyer. In law school, she is an advocate in the year-long Civil Litigation Employment Law Clinic, a student administrator at CLARO (a consumer debt clinic), and an online editor of the New York University Law Review . She has also served as a research assistant and a teaching assistant for NYU’s introductory lawyering course, and spent the summer after her 1L year at NYLAG’s Federal Pro Se Clinic working on employment and housing cases. Before law school, she worked at a food pantry in New York City and at an education nonprofit. She is eager to dive into collective bargaining and learn more about the legal side of labor (and baseball). Wendy Martinez Hurtado JD’22 University of Washington School of Law Seattle, WA Fair Worker Center Seattle, WA As an undocumented Mexican woman who grew up minutes away from the Northwest Detention Center, Wendy is devoted to giving back, fighting and taking risks for the immigrant community. As a daughter of immigrant and low-wage working parents, Wendy is deeply familiar with the workplace challenges and injustices faced by immigrant workers as a result of language barriers, fear of being fired because of citi- zenship status, or not understanding their workplace rights. As a law student, Wendy hopes to continue exploring immigrant and worker rights. She served as the 1L Labor and Employment Law Association representative and as the WA State DACA program manager working with thousands of undocumented youth and their families through community education workshops.