The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) issues timely statements regarding federal legislation and regulations, executive branch and judicial nominations, and federal court decisions that impact workers’ rights. We invite the media to contact us about workplace issues, our legislative initiatives and regulatory comments, and our efforts to preserve an independent and fair judiciary. NELA’s membership includes the nation’s leading experts in the field of employment and labor law, and we work with the press to identify the best commentator for print, television, or digital media stories. Below you will find our current and archived news releases.
To read NELA’s comments, letters, and testimony on our legislative & public policy initiatives, visit our Statements, Letters and Testimony page.
For general media inquries, please contact us at media@nelahq.org.
News Release
The Honorable Richard J. Durbin Ranking Member U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Dear Senator Durbin, On behalf of the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), and its 4,000 national, circuit, state, and local affiliate members across the country, we write to express our opposition to the nomination of Justin D. Smith to fill a vacancy in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. NELA is the largest professional membership organization in the country comprised of lawyers who represent workers in employment, labor, and civil rights disputes. Founded in 1985, NELA’s mission is to empower workers’ rights attorneys through legal training, promoting […]
On May Day 2026, the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) stands with workers, their families, and the advocates who fight for them. With plaintiffs’ employment lawyer members in almost every state, NELA has spent four decades empowering those who defend workers’ rights. That mission has never been more urgent. The workers our members represent are the people who make this country run: nurses and warehouse workers, teachers and farmworkers, federal employees facing mass termination, immigrant workers living under the threat of deportation, and those in every industry who depend on the rights to be free from discrimination, harassment, wage theft, […]
The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) condemns the Department of Justice’s prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Trump administration’s continued weaponization of the Department of Justice to dismantle civil rights and free speech. The indictment of the SPLC is only the latest chapter in a deliberate and escalating pattern of using the government’s most powerful tools to silence, punish, and dismantle any organization, institution, or individual that chooses to hold a different view or pursue a different mission. This administration is now calling longstanding civil rights work criminal in an attempt to reverse the very definition […]
The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) is deeply troubled by the allegations that César Chávez sexually abused women and girls during his leadership of the United Farm Workers. No individual’s legacy, however significant, can excuse the use of power and influence to abuse others. We stand with Dolores Huerta, the survivors who have come forward with courageous and painful truths, and the farmworkers whose decades of struggle, sacrifice, and solidarity built one of the most consequential labor movements in American history. The women who built this movement alongside Chávez and others deserved better. In this difficult moment we take guidance […]
ICE Worksite Raids Target Vulnerable Workers and Undermine Labor Protections The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) condemns the raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its law enforcement collaborators, which target vulnerable workers, suppress their voices, and deny access to the legal systems in place to protect them. These raids are a direct assault on fundamental human rights and do nothing to address the root causes of labor exploitation, silencing individuals who might otherwise report wage theft, discrimination, hazardous conditions, and even human trafficking. By perpetuating a climate of intimidation, ICE’s actions enable abuse, erode access to […]
NELA In The News
The National Employment Lawyers Association, an organization of over 2,000 employment attorneys that has been a vocal advocate for what it sees as some of the most important issues affecting workers, has a new director who previously led a state chapter of the ACLU.
Two dozen progressive organizations want Congress to expand the lower courts beyond what the federal judiciary itself has recommended.
Lawyers from around the country recently weighed in on the need for amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and future national emergencies
Our Members in the News
Law360 takes a look at four of the biggest wage and hour developments in the regulatory and legislative space in 2020.
As employment lawyers who have devoted our careers to fighting discrimination in the workplace, we are heartened to see the world awaken to systemic and structural racism after the egregious killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We are also keenly interested to watch corporate giants weigh in from their positions of privilege and power, as they post online messages supporting Black Lives Matter, tweet condemnation of racist police violence and donate to organizations such as the NAACP.
“You get treated like an animal,” Rayshard Brooks stated in a 2019 interview regarding his experiences in the criminal justice system. “Some of the system could look at us as individuals; we do have lives, you know.” Black lives matter. Mr. Brooks, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor have all recently given their lives to teach our society a truth that we still, somehow, have not learned.
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