Quantcast

CUNY Law opens Latino rights center

The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law announced the grand opening of the Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality (CLORE).
It is located in Flushing at the CUNY Law School.
The Center will be focusing on legal issues affecting the Latino community in the United States, including immigrants’ rights and employment discrimination, among others.
The Center, with the help of community-based organizations and advocates, will be looking to develop litigation strategies that will benefit the Latino community.
“Employment discrimination and the abuse of Latino and Latina employees who are essential to so many businesses are a daily reality,” said Professor Jenny Rivera, the Center’s Director.
She examined both sides of issues that many Latinos deal with.
“On the one hand, companies seeking to profit from the Latino community benefit from Latino and Latina workers because they want Latino business and need low-wage employees. On the other hand, they often make working life miserable for their Latino and Latina employees, and put them at risk for termination. This discrimination and abuse must be stopped,” Rivera said.
CLORE received support from advocates in the Latino legal community.
Cesar A. Perales, president and general counsel of Latino Justice/PRLDEF, said that a center like this one was needed to tackle the current problems that Latinos face.
“Too many of us in the law see the civil rights struggle as something in the past. The fact is that the Latino community is facing its own set of civil rights issues that need the attention of a Center such as this one now,” Perales said.
Perales praised Rivera by stating that under her guidance “the Center will undoubtedly make a major contribution to the field of Latino civil rights.”
“Our focus on progressive legal approaches to addressing issues that impact Latino and Latina developed with the community. We are also focusing on getting more and better legal services to the Latino community,” Rivera said.
Among the Center’s plans are the establishment of a special collection of scholarship and interdisciplinary materials on Latino legal issues at the CUNY School of Law Library, various academic forums, a conference during Hispanic Heritage Month, and numerous citywide workshops covering legal issues.
Professor Jenny Rivera obtained her B.A. from Princeton University, a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and LL.M. (Master of Laws degree) from Columbia University School of Law.
She was Associate Counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and clerked for Judge Sonia Sotomayor in the Southern District of New York
For more information on the CUNY Law School or CLORE, you can visit www.law.cuny.edu or call 718-340-4528.