NCJW supports Nicole Berner. Here’s why:
Nicole Berner is an accomplished labor lawyer who has dedicated her legal career, spanning two decades, to representing working people and their communities to obtain economic and racial justice, access to health care, and gender and LGBTQ equality. Ms. Berner currently serves as General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and is a partner with James and Hoffman, PC, where she focuses on representing workers and the union in a broad range of cases in state and federal courts, including helping to defend the Affordable Care Act, legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act and marriage discrimination, and a successful challenge to Pennsylvania’s onerous voter ID requirement. At Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she litigated reproductive rights cases and represented the organization in state and federal efforts to protect and expand access to reproductive health care. And, earlier in career she served as part of the litigation team before the Supreme Court in the historic LGBTQ-rights case Lawrence v. Texas. If confirmed, Nicole Berner would be the first openly LGBTQ judge as well as the first labor and reproductive rights lawyer on the Fourth Circuit.
Nicole Berner’s stance on important issues:
Abortion rights
At Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Ms. Berner worked on reproductive rights cases at both the trial and appellate court level, focusing on protecting access to medical abortion and mifepristone. She also advised PPFA and its affiliates on state and federal legislation affecting women’s health care and related public policy issues.
Gender-Based Violence
While living in Israel, Ms. Berner founded and led an organization, Bat Adam, focused on advocating for the rights of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
LGBTQ Rights
As a litigation associate at Jenner and Block, Ms. Berner served as part of the litigation team before the Supreme Court in the landmark LGBTQ-rights case Lawrence v. Texas in which the Court held that laws prohibiting private sexual activity between consenting adults are unconstitutional. She also drafted an amicus brief before the Kansas Supreme Court supporting equal treatment of LGBTQ+ youth in Kansas v. Limon. She spearheaded the labor movement’s amicus briefs documenting the economic harm of marriage discrimination to LGBTQ+ workers in US v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges.
Ms. Berner and her former spouse were successful in a petition before the Israeli Supreme Court to obtain recognition of their joint parental rights. Berner-Kadish v. Ministry of Interior set historic precedent for LGBTQ+ rights.
Voting Rights
Ms. Berner represented SEIU and the Change to Win labor federation in a broad range of civil rights cases in state and federal courts, including successfully challenging Pennsylvania’s onerous voter ID requirement.
Workers Rights
At SEIU, she represents the union comprised of a majority women and people of color who work in some of the most difficult and fastest growing occupations in our country, including public services, health care, homecare, childcare, janitorial and building security. Ms. Berner has assisted in bargaining national and regional organizing agreements with major employers and supported the union’s work in connection with the NY Fast Food Wage Board. She spearheaded a legal strategy to bring to the courts the stories of workers and how their lives would be affected by the outcome of the case that resulted in wins: she served as counsel on SEIU’s amicus brief before the US Supreme Court in a successful defense to the Affordable Care Act and as the architect of the labor movement briefs in the case which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and the subsequent case which achieved full marriage equality. Additionally, Ms. Berner has provided strategic legal advice to the Fight for Fifteen campaign and the campaigns to organize homecare and childcare workers who were left out of traditional labor law.
Education
Ms. Berner received her J.D., Order of the Coif, from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and her M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley.
Experience
Nicole Berner is General Counsel to the Service Employees International Union, where she has practiced as in-house counsel since 2006. She is also a partner with James and Hoffman, PC, and an adjunct professor of labor law at Vanderbilt Law School. Previously, Ms. Berner served as a staff attorney for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She worked as a litigation associate at Jenner & Block LLP after working as a visiting attorney at Yigal Arnon & Co. in Jerusalem, Israel. After law school, Ms. Berner served as a law clerk for Judge Thelton E. Henderson on the US District Court for the Northern District of California and for Judge Betty B. Fletcher on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professional Affiliations
She is a member of the American Bar Association, Section of Labor and Employment Law; the National Employment Lawyers Association; and the Legal Advisory Board of Law Forward in Wisconsin. Ms. Berner currently serves on the Board of Directors of Jobs with Justice and the National Partnership for Women and Families. She previously served on the American Constitution Society’s Board of Directors and as a Working Group Member of Clean Slate for Worker Power: a project of Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Additionally, Ms. Berner is an active member of her synagogue and community.
Honors and Awards
Ms. Berner is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow with the American Bar Foundation and College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. She has been named by Lawdragon as one of the “500 Leading Plaintiff Employment & Civil Rights Lawyers,” in 2021, 2022 & 2023, and received the Jews United for Justice “Heschel Vision Award,” in 2014.