Consumer Protection, Social Welfare, and Employment
The Georgetown Law faculty includes the country’s leading authorities in consumer protection law, consumer finance, labor law, and the legal aspects of social welfare.
Our faculty bring to the classroom and to their scholarship experience working in high-ranking federal government posts, including at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and Bureau of Economics, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and the Department of Health and Human Services. No other law school faculty features such depth and breadth of experience.
Georgetown Law scholarship in the area of consumer protection law includes work on consumer finance regulation, the U.S. housing market bubble, food and drug law, and tobacco products regulation. Their leading contributions in social welfare law include best-selling books on social welfare policy, a new affirmative action framework, funding anti-poverty programs, and policies to serve disadvantaged youth. Faculty members have argued numerous labor law cases before the Supreme Court, and its scholarship addresses a range of employment law issues such as wage theft litigation, rights of disabled workers, and workplace discrimination.
The Center on Poverty and Inequality at Georgetown Law works with policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and advocates to develop effective policies and practices that alleviate poverty and inequality in the United States. Recent and current projects include policy research on creating opportunities for marginalized young women, addressing sex trafficking, and addressing the persistence of deep poverty in the United States.
Students benefit not only from our faculty’s expertise and experience, but also from Georgetown Law’s commitment to practical training in the area. The Domestic Violence Clinic is the nation’s premier program for representing indigent victims of domestic abuse in which students work directly with clients to gain a challenging education in the art of trial advocacy. Students in the Institute for Public Representation regularly work on cases of employment discrimination based on race, sex, and religion. The Community Justice Project affords students the opportunity to represent low-income individuals in projects involving housing law, disability law, and prisoners’ rights, among others.