Beth Avery

Beth Avery is a senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, a worker’s rights advocacy organization. Since joining in 2015 as a Ford Foundation Legal Fellow, she has supported NELP’s efforts to create more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces by providing legal and technical assistance on removing unfair barriers to employment, with particular focus on expanding employment opportunities for people with arrest and conviction records. She works to advance fair chance hiring (“ban the box”) and “fair chance licensing” laws and policies, such as working with a statewide coalition of advocates and formerly incarcerated leaders to enact the California Fair Chance Act in 2017. As part of her advocacy, she has testified before state legislatures, advised lawmakers and local advocates on policy design and implementation, and authored amicus briefs to federal and state courts. Before joining NELP, Avery clerked for the Honorable Jesus G. Bernal in the Central District of California as well as justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court and assisted underserved communities through nationwide service projects with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. Avery received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from The College of New Jersey.