Biography

Laura Huizar joined the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in 2015 and currently is NELP’s Immigrant Worker Justice Program Director.

Previously, Laura supported NELP’s efforts to create a good jobs economy by providing legal and technical assistance to local, state, and national campaigns to raise the minimum wage and to enforce federal overtime regulations and other protections. Her work has included supporting campaigns around the country defending local policies from state preemption, expanding local authority to adopt pro-worker policies, and contributing to research on the abuse of preemption. In her previous role as Legal Director of the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) Joint Project with NELP, Laura oversaw and coordinated the LSSC’s legal work focused on deploying proactive legal strategies to help communities resist and reverse state preemption laws.

Laura’s background includes a variety of social and economic justice-related work, including an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, where she represented immigrant workers in low-wage jobs in litigation and assisted community groups seeking policy change. As a Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, Laura supported litigation and conducted legal research related to debtors’ prisons, the school-to-prison pipeline, and other major sources of racial injustice in the U.S. Before attending law school, Laura worked for JUNTA for Progressive Action in New Haven, Connecticut, focusing on local economic development and immigrant worker advocacy.

Valued for her expertise on living and minimum wage and immigrant worker issues, Laura has been quoted by Bloomberg, New Republic, CBS News, Newsweek, and more. Laura is admitted to practice law in New York and the District of Columbia.