September's Amicus Mundi Award winner helped low-wage workers understand their rights & advocate for themselves.

Every month, we give the Amicus Mundi Award to an extraordinary lawyer in our community using their legal expertise to fight for the causes they believe in.

As the nation continues to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of service industry workers — such as restaurant workers, gig workers, and others who rely on tips — face difficult decisions about their finances and health. This month’s Amicus Mundi Award winner is a lawyer who went above and beyond to make sure service workers had the legal support they needed to keep themselves safe and secure.


** Congratulations, Melissa Penn!
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The big picture: As COVID-19 devastated the nation, Melissa wanted to help the communities most impacted by the pandemic, but struggled to find an opportunity.
* After finding We The Action, Melissa signed up with the National Legal Advocacy Network (NLAN) to answer questions from service workers about unemployment insurance, paid leave, health and safety, discrimination, and more.
* Since the project’s launch, NLAN says they’ve helped more than 300 service workers who otherwise may have gone without the legal support they needed.

Striving to help others: Melissa says her passion for serving underrepresented communities started in college, where she worked with adults with developmental disabilities.
* Because she doesn’t have a background in employment law, Melissa says the training and support she got from NLAN was critical to her success helping service workers.
* “It felt uncomfortable going outside my area of expertise,” Melissa says. “But when I told NLAN that I’m not an employment attorney, they said it was absolutely fine.”

A lawyer and an advocate: Though every situation is unique, Melissa immediately saw common themes emerging from her discussions with service workers, like wage theft, sexual harassment, and unsafe working conditions.
* Sarah Almond Pike, Legal Fellow for NLAN, says that Melissa excelled at helping service workers navigate two competing needs: the need to keep themselves safe and the need to keep earning a living.

“Empathy and solidarity”: Sarah says that Melissa’s holistic approach to each service workers’ challenges made her a particularly effective advocate for their clients as they face the challenges and stresses caused by COVID.
* “We’re calling workers essential, but making them come to work in dangerous conditions at sub-minimum wage,” Sarah says. “What was so great about Melissa is that she really had empathy and solidarity with the workers’ stories.”

Help us drive change: Sarah says that their Servicer Workers’ Clinic would not be possible without the support of volunteer lawyers like Melissa, and We The Action lets lawyers make a difference from their couch.
* “I felt like I was making an impact,” Melissa agrees. “Whatever your availability or expertise, you can do this. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it makes a difference!”


** On behalf of 41,000 We The Action volunteer lawyers: Thank you, Melissa!
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Want to join Melissa and help advocate for workers? The National Legal Advocacy Network is recruiting lawyers for a new project to give free legal support to low-wage workers! ([link removed])

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