Introduction

UC Irvine School of Law and the UC Irvine Long U.S.-China Institute will host a workshop to discuss the rights of workers in nail salons in New York City and Southern California. As a special guest Aaron Halegua of NYU School of Law will discuss labor conditions in NYC’s nail salon industry, new government regulatory measures and the response by salon owners, with a particular focus on Chinese workers and employers.

Following his presentation, workshop participants will discuss the NYC experiences and compare them with the situation in California. Participants will also explore potential for collaboration across the coasts both for legal aid, policy and research.

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About the Speaker

Aaron Halegua is a lawyer, consultant, and Research Fellow at both NYU Law School’s Center for Labor and Employment Law and U.S.-Asia Law Institute. In his over 10 years working on Chinese labor issues, Aaron has consulted for Apple, the Ford Foundation, Asia Foundation, PILNet, SEIU, the International Labor Rights Forum, and the American Bar Association. His writings on Chinese legal issues have appeared in the South China Morning Post, Berkeley Journal of International Law, Hong Kong Law Journal, and Harvard Law & Policy Review (Online), and he has been quoted in The New York Times and Economist. Aaron was the legal expert hired by the International Labor Organization to help the Government of Myanmar draft a labor law reform plan in 2015. In the United States, Aaron has successfully represented Chinese immigrants working in nail salons, restaurants, homecare, and construction. He authored a book chapter based on these experiences that will be published by Cambridge University Press. He has an A.B. from Brown University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.