Jennifer J. Lee

Jennifer J. Lee is a Clinical Professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law, directing the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic at the Sheller Center for Social Justice. She represents low-income individuals and organizations on critical issues affecting marginalized communities, with expertise in low-wage worker rights and immigrant advocacy. Her clinic handles employment litigation and policy reform on family detention, language access, and temp worker exploitation, highlighted by the award-winning report Shortchanged exposing Pennsylvania wage theft.

Education:

• J.D., Columbia Law School
• B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lee's research centers on the intersection of immigration status and labor rights for vulnerable workers. She examines systemic exploitation through wage theft, guest worker programs, and language barriers, advocating for structural change via clinical legal education and policy reform. Her scholarship reveals how immigration status exacerbates labor market vulnerabilities while exploring transnational solutions through comparative studies of migrant child detention and cross-border worker advocacy.

Her publications demonstrate consistent focus on immigrant labor rights across disciplines, blending critical legal theory with empirical analysis of enforcement mechanisms. Key trends include challenging temporary visa programs as modern indentured servitude, reframing wage theft as systemic corporate exploitation, and developing frameworks for language justice in legal systems. This interdisciplinary approach bridges labor law, human rights, and social movement theory.

Scientific Awards:

• Crystal Eastman Award for wage theft advocacy
• Derrick A. Bell Award (2020) for junior faculty activism
• George P. Williams Award as Outstanding Professor of the Year (2022)
• Paul & Sheila Wellstone Award to Combat Human Trafficking
• Cesar Chavez Organizational Leadership Award

As clinic director, Lee mentors law students in high-impact litigation and policy campaigns, securing Fulbright funding for comparative research on migrant detention in Mexico. Her García-Robles Fulbright Scholarship enabled collaboration with UNAM on temporary visa worker protections, while clinic projects have attracted sustained media engagement and community partnerships.

Lee leads the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic in strategic collaborations with grassroots organizations nationwide, focusing on systemic interventions in wage theft enforcement, language access in courts, and dismantling exploitative guest worker programs. Her team combines litigation, legislative advocacy, and community education to advance structural change for low-wage immigrant workers.