Pregnancy and Leave Laws in a Post-Dobbs World

Deborah Widiss Related Seminars and Products

Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs, Professor of Law, and Ira C. Batman Faculty Fellow

Indiana University Bloomington, Maurer School of Law

Deborah Widiss is a Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Her research and teaching focuses on employment law, statutory interpretation, and family law. Professor Widiss has served as chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Employment Discrimination Section and as a member of the executive committee of the AALS Legislation Section. She has received several awards and grants for her research, including AALS Outstanding Scholarly Paper award. Professor Widiss has been quoted as an expert on issues relating to employment discrimination, same-sex marriage, and domestic violence by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post. Prior to transitioning to academia, Professor Widiss practiced employment and education law. She received a J.D. and B.A. from Yale University.

Phillis H. Rambsy Related Seminars and Products

Attorney/Owner

Rambsy Law

Phillis h. Rambsy is an attorney-owner at Rambsy Law PC, a law firm based in Nashville, Tennessee. She specializes in areas of employment law, including representing workers in matters of wrongful termination, discrimination, and harassment. She also represents workers in contract negotiations. Additionally, Ms. Rambsy represents entrepreneurs.

Ms. Rambsy is an active member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, and served as a board member for the organization for 3 years. Ms. Rambsy currently serves as a board member for the Institute for Workers’ Rights. She is a frequent presenter at legal programs, and many of her presentations focus on race and the law, bias in the legal profession, and workers’rights.

Ms. Rambsy earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, a Master’s degree from the University of Kentucky, and a Bachelor’s degree from Spelman College. She is a member of the state and federal bars of Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia. She is also admitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Rebecca Salawdeh Esq. Related Seminars and Products

Salawdeh Law Office

Rebecca L. Salawdeh received her Master’s in Industrial Relations and Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Madison and has practiced exclusively in the area of plaintiff’s employment litigation for the past twenty-seven years. Since 2007, she has been a solo attorney with Salawdeh Law Office, LLC.  Rebecca has been a member of the Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association and the National Employment Lawyers Association since 1996. She served on NELA’s Executive Board for twelve years and is a past Executive Secretary.  Rebecca was the Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Workers’ Rights from its inception in 2008 until 2018 and was then its President until 2022. Rebecca was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Service Award in 2010 by the Milwaukee NAACP. In 2000, Rebecca, in conjunction with others, helped to form the Milwaukee Unemployment Compensation Appeals Clinic and continues to volunteer with Legal Action of Wisconsin’s Unemployment Compensation Appeals Clinic, being named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year in 2020 by the Wisconsin State Bar Legal Assistance Committee. Since 2015, Rebecca has volunteered as a mentor for high school students competing in the We the People state and national competitions. In 2020, Rebecca also joined the civic organization Tosa Together in an effort to create a more inclusive community in the city where she lives and works.

Ming-Qi Chu Related Seminars and Products

Deputy Director, Women’s Rights Project

American Civil Liberties Union

Ming-Qi Chu (she/her/hers) is the Deputy Director of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.  The Women’s Rights Project engages in systemic legal reform to ensure that everyone has the freedom to live, work, and learn free from stereotypes, harassment, and violence based on sex. Its recent work includes challenging employment rules that penalize workers for their pregnancies or push them out of the paid workforce altogether, challenging sex-specific dress codes in schools and at work, and fighting the mass eviction crisis and other unfair housing practices that disproportionately lock out women, particularly Black women, from housing opportunities.

Before joining the ACLU, she served in the Biden Administration as Senior Counsel to the Solicitor of Labor, where she advised on a range of executive priorities, including the implementation of the Racial Equity and Gender Equity Executive Orders and the issuance of an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect the safety and health of workers during the Coronavirus pandemic.  Prior to her work in the federal government, Ming was Chief of the Civil Enforcement Section in the Labor Bureau of the New York Attorney General's Office, where she oversaw strategic litigation and investigations across the state.  Ming was additionally part of the New York Attorney General's litigation team challenging federal administrative action during the Trump Administration.  She was one of the lead counsel for the State of New York in the Title X litigation, Oregon, New York, et al. v. Azar, and the Public Charge litigation, New York, et al. v. Department of Homeland Security.    

Ming has also worked in private practice at labor and employment firm, Vladeck, Raskin, and Clark, P.C, and as a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Yale College.