Free Book Launch- Legal Workers Inquiry: Worker Writing from Across the Sector in Britain

Dr Tanzil Chowdhury and Dr Jamie Woodcock are editors of a collection of essays entitled Legal Workers Inquiry: Worker Writing From Across The Sector In Britain, the culmination of a project by Notes from Below and the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context. This book is the first ever workers’ inquiry into the UK legal sector.

The book brings together 15 different writers, from chambers to firms and university law clinics, from solicitors and barristers to paralegals and building managers, writing about the experiences of their work, class relations, exploitation and organising in their sector.

The launch will hear from the editors of the book, in conversation with several of the writers of the collection, about their contributions, the process of writing their pieces, and what future challenges worker organising in the legal sector faces.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase with all proceeds going to Notes from Below.

Speakers 

Tanzil Chowdhury – Editor and Associate Professor in public law at Queen Mary, University of London
Tanzil Chowdhury is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Public Law at Queen Mary University of London and the Co-Director for the Centre of Law and Society in a Global Context. His research focusses on public law and constitutional reform, drawing on marxist and materialist social theory. He was previously a Research Fellow at Birmingham Law School, where he assisted on a report examining key provisions of Gibraltar’s 2006 Constitution for the Territory’s Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform, and was the President’s Doctoral Scholar at the University of Manchester. He was also a Research Associate at the University of Essex and has held visiting positions at The New School (New York), New York Law School (New York), Hong Kong University (Hong Kong), Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris), Yeshiva University (New York City), and the Université Catholique de Lille (Paris). Tanzil was recently an inaugural Fellow for FOBZU, and will spent the next few years building institutional links with the Institute of Law at Birzeit University in Palestine. Before beginning his job at Queen Mary, Tanzil was a development worker that helped to set up the Greater Manchester Law Centre and was a co-founder of the Northern Police Monitoring Project.

Jamie Woodcock – Editor and Associate Professor in digital economy at King’s College London
Dr Jamie Woodcock is a senior lecturer in digital economy at King’s College London. He is the author of books including Troublemaking (Verso, 2023), Employment (Routledge, 2023), The Fight Against Platform Capitalism (University of Westminster Press, 2021), The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working the Phones (Pluto, 2017). His research is available to read online and has been featured widely in the media. It is inspired by workers’ inquiry and focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organising, and videogames. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism. Jamie completed his PhD in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London and has held positions at Goldsmiths, University of Leeds, University of Manchester, Queen Mary, NYU London, Cass Business School, the LSE, the University of Oxford, the Open University, and the University of Essex.

Sreyan Chatterjee 
Sreyan is a lawyer and public policy professional with experience in finance, technology and employment regulation. He is currently involved in projects exploring the financial and technological transformations of value chains and working conditions in various sectors including gig and platform economy, leather and ready-made garments, electronics manufacturing, IT&ITeS and legal process outsourcing. 

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