David Rodwin, Public Justice Center

David's Fellowship:

Based in the Public Justice Center's Workplace Justice Project, David will focus on home care workers, the personal care aides and home health aides who care for some of our society's most vulnerable residents.  These women and men are themselves vulnerable to exploitative working conditions exacerbated by inferior legal protections.  He'll spend his time educating workers on existing law, litigating cases on their behalf, and building connections with existing advocacy organizations.

Background:

David believes economic justice is a human right.  He is passionate about using the law in conjunction with social movements to protect and advance the rights of marginalized workers. Before going to law school, David worked as an English teacher in Japan and then at a human rights organization in India.  In law school he founded the Orange County Human Rights Association and worked in the international human rights and immigrant rights clinics.  Following his graduation in 2012, he clerked for two federal judges and spent a year in Guatemala.  He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and UC Irvine School of Law.  

Why do you choose to live and work in Baltimore?  

1) I'm from Buffalo, NY, and I feel comfortable here.  There's very little pretension in Baltimore.  

2) In law school, Connie Rice of the Advancement Project came and gave a speech where she told us that if we want to best apply our passions it's important to go to where things are toughest.  Inequality is very bad in Baltimore, and I think it's a good place to fight it.  

3) Baltimore is old, and its history is the story of this country.  I find that interesting.

What's one surprising fact about yourself?  

I can snap my pinky. 

Go-to snack? 

Almonds or a cliff bar