Katy Youker

Katy Youker joined the Lawyers’ Committee as the Director for the Economic Justice Project in August 2021. Before coming to the Lawyers’ Committee, Katy spent close to two decades at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid (TRLA) representing farmworkers and low-wage workers in litigation in state and federal court, including enforcement of rights under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and anti-discrimination statutes. While at TRLA, Katy started the Low Wage Worker Project, a team to focus novel and comprehensive advocacy on the epidemic of wage theft. For nine years, she served as the Coordinator of the Labor and Employment Group at TRLA, a practice group providing legal services to low-wage workers in Southwest Texas, including the entire Texas-Mexico border, and farmworkers in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. In addition, she has served on the State Bar of Texas Labor and Employment Section executive council, local government committees, and nonprofit boards of directors, including as a founding board member of Border Workers United, a workers’ center on the Texas-Mexico border. Katy received her JD from the University of Houston Law Center and BA from Evergreen State College.

Bar Admissions: Admitted in District of Columbia and Texas. Admitted to the Southern and Western Districts of Texas and the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeal.