Justin Zelikovitz
Justin is President of the First Shift Board of Directors. Justin is a local employment law attorney who has spent his career representing working class people throughout the D.C. Metro area. Before starting his own law practice, he was Litigation Counsel for the D.C. Employment Justice Center and a Trial Attorney at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau. Justin now focuses primarily on wage and hour litigation in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, particularly on behalf of the local Latino community. He attended the University of Virginia School of Law and Duke University. Justin is also on the board of Abriendo Mentes – a non-profit that provides educational opportunities to rural Costa Rican children.
Michelle Woolley
Michelle is Secretary of the Board of Directors. She is an attorney with The Spiggle Law Firm, an employment law firm specializing in pregnancy and family responsibilities discrimination. Previously she worked for the employment and labor firm Murphy Anderson PLLC and was the Institute for Educational Equity and Opportunity Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Michelle earned both her law degree and bachelor degree cum laude from American University. She was inspired to attend law school after working in the policy department of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. When not fighting for workers’ rights, Michelle is chasing her very active and adventurous toddler.
Fatima Goss Graves
Fatima is Treasurer of the First Shift Board of Directors. Fatima is Vice President for Education and Employment at the National Women’s Law Center, where she works to promote the rights of women and girls at school and in the workplace. Fatima advocates and litigates core legal and policy issues, including those that impact pregnant and parenting students. She further works to address discriminatory barriers and advance opportunities for women in the workplace, with a particular focus on low-wage workers. She uses a number of advocacy strategies in her work on these issues ranging from public education and legislative advocacy to litigation, including briefs in the Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. Prior to joining the Center, she worked as an appellate and trial litigator at Mayer Brown LLP. She began her career as a law clerk for the Honorable Diane P. Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Fatima is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and Yale Law School. She lives on Capitol Hill with her husband and two young sons.
Joni Jacobs
Joni has been representing workers since 1995. Her practice currently focuses on wage and hour litigation and employee benefits. She also counsels unions on wage and hour, family leave and disability law. A long-time volunteer advising attorney for the Workers’ Rights Clinic of the Employment Justice Center (EJC), she is honored to serve on the Board of Directors for First Shift Justice Project. Joni also volunteers her time for her local PTA, her neighborhood association, and a local program for the homeless. Joni is a graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and has practiced law in DC since 2005. She is a partner at Murphy Anderson PLLC, and is barred in the District of Columbia, California (inactive), Arizona (inactive) and Nevada (inactive), and is the single mother of a wonderful teen-aged daughter.