Seth Harris

About Seth

• I come from a family that was very involved in social justice, so I grew up having a passion for it as well.
• I was also very interested in politics, and started volunteering in political campaigns in my community when I was just 10 years old.
• As a kid, I decided I wanted to become a lawyer after being inspired by the stories of Clarence Darrow, a lawyer who became famous for representing progressive causes.
• In college, I studied industrial and labor relations, and became much more engaged in working class labor and social justice issues.
• After graduating, I spent five years working in the labor movement before going back to school for a law degree.
• I worked as a law professor for about a decade at New York Law School in lower Manhattan.
• I served for almost five years as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor under President Obama—including six months as the acting Secretary of Labor.
• I now work as an attorney, business advisor, and visiting professor at Cornell University, where I teach leadership and public policy.