Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee (she/they) is Co-Director of WorkLife Law, which she leads with Co-Director Liz Morris. For nearly three decades, WorkLife Law has built the legal protections that safeguard economic security during pregnancy and family caregiving. Under their shared leadership, the organization is deepening those protections and putting them within reach of the most marginalized workers and students, so that all people have the freedom to care for their loved ones and their own health without sacrificing their livelihoods. Jessica co-founded The Pregnant Scholar at WorkLife Law, the nation’s first legal resource center dedicated to the rights of pregnant and parenting students, whose policies have been adopted at hundreds of institutions nationwide. Before The Pregnant Scholar, these rights were largely unknown, and the discrimination students faced went unnamed. Thanks to Jessica’s work, these rights are now part of the national conversation on gender justice.

Jessica was also instrumental in winning landmark federal protections for nursing workers through the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. She works to build legal protections at every level of government: legislation she co-drafted has been introduced in statehouses across the country, and she advises federal and state enforcement agencies on how civil rights laws should be interpreted and enforced.

Jessica is a nationally recognized expert on the laws at the intersection of employment, education, and maternal and infant health. She trains advocates, institutions, and families across the country, turning complex legal rights into tools thousands of people can use. This work is grounded in what she learns from the students and workers who call WorkLife Law’s free legal helpline, where nine out of ten callers secure the accommodations and leave they need to stay healthy and safe.

Jessica’s work has been covered by press from the New York Times to the BBC, and her writing has appeared in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review and the Chronicle of Higher Education to law reviews and medical journals.

Prior to joining WorkLife Law, Jessica was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where her work spanned humanitarian law violations, discrimination, and freedom of speech and information. Her earlier work includes research and advocacy in support of women in the criminal justice system and women facing discrimination and human rights violations internationally.

Jessica earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.