Lydia Edwards, American University, Washington College of Law

Brazilian Domestic Worker Legal Clinic

Lydia is a graduate of American University, Washington College of Law.  She is currently a clerk with the Massachusetts Appeals Court. After graduation and before taking up her clerkship, Lydia volunteered with the Brazilian Immigrant Center for two years. This was her first experience working with immigrant worker populations. As a result of this experience she changed her career path, learned Portuguese, and is now dedicated to organizing, representing and empowering immigrant workers to fight for economic and social equality. It is because of her experience at the Center that Lydia became aware of the workplace abuses of domestic workers and the legal gaps and lack of protection domestic workers have in the state of Massachusetts. Today, Lydia represents the Brazilian Immigrant Center in its domestic worker organizing capacity by co-facilitating the Massachusetts Domestic Worker Coalition meetings, meeting workers through the Brazilian Immigrant Center’s immigrant church outreach efforts, and educating workers about their rights at the Brazilian Immigrant Center’s Workers’ Rights Workshops.

The Domestic Worker Legal Clinic Project will be the legal component of the Brazilian Immigrant Center’s Domestic Worker Organizing Initiative. The Clinic will represent domestic workers in dealing with the most common workplace abuses of wage theft and underpayment.  In addition, the Clinic will operate as a “think tank” , and take on impact litigation cases that will challenge state laws to better protect domestic workers, especially in the area of employment discrimination where by definition domestic workers are excluded from protection.  The clinic will work heavily with the Massachusetts Coalition for Domestic Workers as way of assuring the legal component follows and supports wider, on the ground organizing efforts to achieve a new Massachusetts Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

The Clinic will empower domestic workers and create a Domestic Worker Council that will consist of domestic workers from various backgrounds. The Council will keep the Clinic abreast of new trends in workplace abuses, guide the Clinic’s outreach efforts, and consult on the preparation of materials for educational workshops. Finally, the Clinic will help train domestic workers in mediation with the intended goal of establishing a Domestic Worker Mediation Panel. This panel will create a safe place for undocumented domestic workers to invite their employers to come so that they may resolve workplace issues with them.  The panel will help both parties come to a resolution which will be memorialized by the Clinic and enforceable in court.