Nicole G. Berner

Adjunct Professor of Law
General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Partner, James & Hoffman

Nicole G. Berner is General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents nearly 2 million workers in the healthcare, property services and public sectors. She is also a partner at James and Hoffman, a union-side labor law firm based in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Berner provides strategic legal advice to SEIU's innovative organizing campaigns, including the Fight for $15 and other efforts to raise workplace standards and improve the lives of low wage service and care workers. She represents the union in negotiations with national employers and in litigation in state and federal courts throughout the country. Ms. Berner regularly appears on behalf of SEIU and its members before the National Labor Relations Board. She also represents the union in a broad range of cases that impact SEIU’s members and their communities, including defending and protecting access to affordable healthcare and fighting for LGBTQ rights, civil rights, voting rights, and immigrant justice.

After clerkships on the Northern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Ms. Berner was a litigation associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Jenner and Block. Prior to coming to SEIU, she served as a staff attorney at Planned Parenthood Federation of America where her work focused on protecting and expanding access to mifepristone and medication abortion.

Ms. Berner is a member of the Bar Associations of Maryland, the District of Columbia and California. She is also a admitted to practice before a number of federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. She is a Member of The American Law Institute, a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation, and has been repeatedly recognized by Lawdragon as one of the top 500 employment and civil rights lawyers in the country. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the National Partnership of Women and Families and Jobs with Justice. She formerly served on the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society.