The Role and Functioning of Public-Interest Legal Organizations in the Enforcement of the Employment Laws

Abstract

Many laws create important rights for today's employees, but the availability of legal representation for employees seeking to enforce those rights is uncertain. The goal of the present paper, part of the Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the 21st Century Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research, is to examine some of the distinctive public-interest legal organizations that exist to help to enforce the employment laws. The chapter focuses on two broad categories of such organizations: 'national issue organizations,' which are organizations that focus on one or more broad-based issues and are funded predominantly by private donations; and legal services organizations, which serve exclusively low-income individuals and are funded primarily by the government.