Get to know LSA Board Trustee Veena Dubal!
Institution:
University of California, Irvine School of Law
Number of years as LSA member:
10+
Number of LSA Meetings Attended:
6
LSA Governance Position(s) and Committees:
Board of Trustees, Class of 2026
Other Association Affiliations:
Association of Law & Political Economy
American Association of University Professors
Areas of Research:
Social movements and law
Technology, society, and law
Work, law, and society
Favorite Topics to Teach or Research:
Technology, labor, and law
Unique Skill or Fact:
I’m the general counsel of the American Association of University Professors. We sued the federal government nine times in 2025. I am most proud that in AAUP v. Rubio, we got a declaratory judgement that the ideological deportation policy is unconstitutional, thus protecting the academic freedom and safety of noncitizen scholars. And in AAUP v. Trump, we got a preliminary injunction, successfully preventing the Trump administration from unlawfully using civil rights laws and funding cuts as a cudgel to reshape the University of California system in the President’s ideological image.
Additional Hobbies:
I spend most of my time teaching, researching, and organizing with gig workers and faculty (in many cases, faculty ARE gig workers), as well as parenting my three young children. Sometimes I get to read for fun! And I enjoy translating my academic research into public writing.
Notable Awards and Grants:
Fulbright Critical Language Enhancement Award for Hindi/Urdu | 2007 – 2008
Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) Michael Zimmer Memorial Award | 2019
Minority Bar Association Unity Award | 2009
South Asian Bar Association of Northern California (SABA-NC) Public Interest Attorney of the Year Award | 2009
Top Books and/or Publications:
“Algorithmic Wage Discrimination.” Columbia Law Review 123(7): 1929-1992
“Data Laws at Work.” Yale Law Journal Forum 134: 405-447
“Wage Slave or Entrepreneur?: Contesting the Dualism of Legal Worker Identities.” California Law Review 105(1): 65-123
Education:
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley | Jurisprudence & Social Policy
J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law
B.A., Stanford University
Major Appearances:
Keynote Address, Countervailing Platform Power. Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy. June 2025
Keynote Address, Work Futures Observatory Conference, Nottingham Trent University, June 2025
Keynote Address, Canadian Work & Labor Studies Association Conference, May 2025
What do you find the most beneficial about being an LSA member?
I learn a tremendous amount from other LSA members and from the LSA annual conference. Being among scholars who work interdisciplinarily exposes me to a wide variety of literatures and ideas. It is my intellectual home.
Why should professionals or students join LSA?
I have been an LSA member since my graduate school days, and it remains my academic home. LSA was the first professional organization I joined, and LSA was the first academic conference that I attended. Professionals should join because it is an association that will help them put their work into a larger analytical context. Students should join because they will get incredible feedback on their work, access to the best peer reviewed articles, and mentors that will support them throughout their careers.
Learn more about Veena Dubal, her many publications, awards, and involvement with academic organizations here.