Charlotte Noss ’10

Northeastern let me tailor my legal education to meet my goals.

Charlotte Noss ’10

Charlotte Noss was drawn to Northeastern because of its leadership in public interest law. “The law school has an amazing number of graduates doing the kind of work I wanted to do and professors with great political ability who showed me how to apply law in a practical manner,” says Charlotte, who worked as an organizer for low-wage and immigrant laborers before enrolling in law school. “I had seen how law could seem disempowering, and wanted to demystify it and put it to work in the organizing world,” she says.

Charlotte’s passion for labor resulted in definite ideas about where she wanted to go on co-op: at nonprofit organizations, law firms and international NGOs at the heart of labor and immigration issues. “Northeastern let me tailor my legal education to meet my goals,” says Charlotte, who now serves as the Worker Center program director at the National Employment Law Project.

LSSC Social Justice Project

Charlotte’s 1L law office team researched innovative state responses to barriers to employment faced by individuals with criminal records.

Co-op

Centro del los Derechos del Migrante, Zacatecas, Mexico

Charlotte conducted outreach to plaintiffs for potential guest worker litigation and drafted comments on federal guest worker regulations.

Independent Study

Innovative legal strategies for labor organizers

Working with a classmate, Charlotte interviewed labor lawyers and workers’ rights advocates, assembling a best-practices guide for combining law and organizing.

Co-op

ACLU-Immigrant Rights Project, San Francisco, California

Charlotte supported litigation defending the constitutional rights of non-citizens and drafted memoranda on suppression of evidence obtained unlawfully by state police.

Activities
  • Justice for Janitors Coalition
  • National Lawyers Guild (Northeastern Chapter)
  • Roxbury Against NU Expansion
  • Street Law Clinic
Teaching Assistant

Property

Electives
  • Civil Trial Practice
  • Corporations
  • Employment Law
  • Immigration Law
  • Labor Law
  • Latino Civil Rights
  • Nonprofit Organizations
  • Strategies for Social Change Lawyering
Co-op

Peggy Browning Fellow, La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco, California

Charlotte organized day laborers through San Francisco Day Labor Project and used non-traditional strategies to collect unpaid wages.

Co-op

Rothner, Segall, Greenstone & Leheny, Pasadena, California

At this union-side labor firm, Charlotte drafted legal memoranda to advise labor union clients.

After Graduation

Skadden Fellow/Project Attorney, Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, San Francisco

Charlotte was selected in a highly competitive process as a Skadden Fellow, one of the most prestigious public interest fellowships in the nation.

Now

Worker Center Program Director, National Employment Law Project, Washington, DC

Result

An effective organizer working to change the power dynamic.