Jennifer Robbins

Jennifer achieves social and economic justice through strategic, effective, and zealous representation of her public- and private-sector union clients. Jennifer has extensive experience in arbitration and in court fighting employer attempts to deny workers the wages, benefits, and working conditions to which they are entitled by their labor contracts or under statutory law. She helps her union clients negotiate strong contracts, and to enforce them. Jennifer maintains a dynamic litigation practice and regularly handles cases on behalf of unions, community organizations, and classes of workers to enforce minimum labor standards like fair pay and meal breaks. Her more than a decade of tireless union-side labor work spans multiple industries and every stage of dispute resolution, from advice and negotiations to litigation, trial, and appeal.

Jennifer earned her J.D. with Honors in Law from the University of Washington School of Law, where she co-founded the Disability Law Alliance and was co-President of the Center for Human Rights and Justice. Jennifer earned her M.A., summa cum laude, from Michigan State University in 2001, where she studied movements for social and economic justice and the ways those movements have changed and shaped American law, policy, and politics. Jennifer joined the Firm in 2009 and became a partner in 2014.

Representative Work:

• Liang et al. v. Wash. Dept. of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 20-2-02506-34 (Thurston Cty. Super. Ct.); SEIU 775 v. Wash. Dep’t of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 97216-8 (Wash. Supreme Ct.); SEIU 775 v. Wash. Dept. of Soc. & Health Servs., No. 99659-8 (Wash. Supreme Ct.): Co-lead counsel in multi-year litigation that resulted in a $116 million class settlement on behalf of nearly 56,000 caregivers who provided personal care services to clients whose paid care hours were reduced by DSHS because of DSHS’s “shared benefit” rules and a settlement that ended administrative “shared benefit” rules that, according to home care workers and their union, shortchanged caregiver wages.
• Millions of dollars in trial court judgments to remedy meal break violations and unpaid off-the-clock work under Washington state wage law for union-represented workers
• Filo Foods, LLC, et al. v. City of SeaTac , 183 Wn.2d 770 (2015) upholding the validity and enforceability of SeaTac Proposition 1, which established a living wage and other minimum labor standards for thousands of hospitality and transportation industry workers in the City of SeaTac
• Groundbreaking settlement for nurses union, which included $5 million in back pay for nurses for hospital's failure to provide work-free rest and meal breaks; block rest breaks hospital-wide; and 26 new FTEs dedicated to providing break relief coverage
• Burien Communities for Inclusion v. Respect Washington , 2019 WL 4262081 (Wn. Ct. App. Sept. 9, 2019) affirming preliminary injunction to keep off ballot a measure that would repeal Burien's immigration status ordinance, which prohibits inquiries into immigration status or religious affiliation and prohibits the creation of religious registries, among other things
• Chavez v. Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital at Pasco, 190 Wn.2d 507 (2018) (counsel for amicus Washington State Labor Council) holding class certification was appropriate in nurses' class action against hospital for unpaid wages due to missed breaks
• Rekhter v. Dep't of Social and Health Servs., 180 Wn.2d 102 (2014) (counsel for SEIU 775 and individual provider) upholding $57 million judgment against State of Washington for breaching implied duty of good faith and fair dealing in State's contracts with individual providers
• Served on trial team for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 in its case against Boeing for violations of the National Labor Relations Act when the company relocated work to South Carolina for retaliatory reasons.
• Regularly obtains reinstatement and other make-whole relief in arbitration for employees terminated or disciplined in violation of collective bargaining agreements.
• Regularly successfully enforces union labor agreements in contract arbitration.
• Regularly advises unions in contract negotiations to obtain strong wages and benefits for their members.