Wayne Law student wins workers' rights fellowship

Wayne State University Law School student Jessica Hoyer has been awarded a 2016 Peggy Browning Summer Fellowship to work for the United Auto Workers International Union at its Detroit headquarters for 10 weeks.

Hoyer of Livonia is the daughter of a union-represented truck driver and granddaughter of a former automobile plant employee. She grew up in a blue-collar family that impressed upon her the importance of unions.

“Winning this fellowship has been a goal of mine since the start of my first year of law school,” Hoyer said. “I'm honored to have the opportunity to work for the UAW, especially given their influence in the history of Detroit’s auto industry and the role unions have always played in my personal family history, as well.”

As a fellow, Hoyer will serve as a law clerk for the union’s in-house legal staff, conducting research, drafting briefs and accompanying staff lawyers to hearings and oral arguments.
“Earning my undergraduate degree in sociology allowed me to explore the intersections between class and economic standing, which eventually led to my interest in workers’ rights and labor law,” Hoyer said.

Last year, Hoyer worked on the Sexual Assault Kit Task Force at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and helped prosecutors organize and develop cases stemming from more than 11,000 untested sexual assault kits discovered in a storage warehouse.

For 2015-16, Hoyer was a student lawyer with Wayne Law’s Disability Law Clinic and an assistant editor of the Wayne Law Review.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College.

The mission of the Peggy Browning Fund is to educate and inspire the next generation of law students to become advocates for workplace justice. It was established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a prominent labor attorney and member of the National Labor Relations Board.