Peggy Browning Fellow Justin McCulloch L’26 worked with the legal department of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Pittsburgh this summer.
Justin McCulloch L’26 is a rising 2L from Coconut Creek, FL, who hopes to work in civil rights and labor law.
This summer, I worked as a Peggy Browning Fellow with the legal department of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Pittsburgh, PA. Under the guidance of the USW’s General Counsel, I aided the legal department in advocating for and defending members across North America. This includes traditional steelworkers, employees in the rubber industry, and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.
In my role, I had the opportunity to complete intense research into NLRB decisions, arbitrations, and circuit court decisions, as well as drafting position statements for bargaining and grievance arbitration. My primary work focused on assisting in protecting members’ rights under collective bargaining agreements, enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and ensuring positive gains in new rounds of negotiations. Most recently, I played an active research role in the Steelworkers’ preparation for an arbitration in connection with a merger involving one of the union’s largest employers, where the USW hopes to protect their hard-fought gains, which they have achieved over several decades of labor activism.
My summer work is a part of the mission of the Peggy Browning Fund (PBF). The PBF is a nonprofit organization established in memory of Margaret A. Browning L’78, prominent labor attorney and Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). PBF’s fellowship program seeks to educate and inspire the next generation of advocates for workplace justice. The fellowship provides aspiring labor/employment lawyers with the opportunity to work under the tutelage of experienced labor lawyers at union-side firms, worker nonprofits, and in-house union counsel. I want to use this experience and my connections at USW to grow my network in the labor movement and build my knowledge of labor law. My work at USW has solidified that my home is in the labor movement and has pushed me toward pursuing a career as a worker’s rights advocate. I would be particularly interested in working in the South.
Later this year, I will attend the Peggy Browning Workers’ Rights Conference, where I and the other Fellows will share our experiences, gain new knowledge, and continue our fight for a better workplace for all people.
My passion for labor law was fostered by my upbringing and my Penn Carey Law experience. As the grandson of a member of the Polish Solidarity (Solidarność) movement, I was raised to believe in the dignity of all labor, as well as the awesome power that workers could harness and utilize—if only given the chance. My first year at Penn Carey Law provided a unique avenue to channel that belief into legal knowledge and activism. From learning about the role of tort law in the development of workplace safety and labor agitation, to advocating for worker benefits in my Legal Practice Skills brief, I have been able to exercise and build upon my passion for the law and the cause of labor.
After this summer, I hope to use my real-life experience with the USW to inform my education as I prepare for coursework in employment discrimination and labor law. Having learned key skills and important expertise from one of the oldest and strongest unions in the county, I plan to use those tools to pursue pro-bono projects at the Law School and activism in the Philadelphia area. Post graduation, I hope to continue the fight for workplace justice at a union-side law firm or pursuing my other legal interests: freedom of religion and church-state separation.
Pathways to the Profession highlights Penn Carey Law students and post-graduate fellows as they launch impactful legal careers. From summer internships in the private sector to public interest post-graduate fellowships and externships, these firsthand accounts of substantive legal work demonstrate the myriad opportunities available to Penn Carey Law students and graduates.
Read more Penn Carey Law students’ Pathways to the Profession.