labor law

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq featured in Inside US Trade article 

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq was recently featured in Inside US Trade regarding the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) and how it may be used by the upcoming Trump administration.

The December 5 article entitled “Under Trump, hope — and recommendations — for the stronger use of RRM” was written by Margaret Spiegelman. It references a report LeClercq co-authored with Mexican researchers on the views of workers in the Mexican auto sector on their labor rights under the USMCA’s RRM, as well as her November 10 post for the International Economic Law and Policy Blog entitled “Whither the Worker-Centered Trade Policy?”

From the article:

University of Georgia School of Law Assistant Professor Desirée LeClercq…says a recent study she conducted with El Colegio de Sonora professor Alex Covarrubias-V and Cirila Quintero Ramirez, a research professor at El Colegio de Frontera Norte, Unidad Matamoros, suggests that the mechanism has disproportionately served a relatively narrow group of workers with ties to major U.S. unions and non-governmental organizations, without raising labor standards overall.

LeClercq, who was USTR’s director of labor affairs during President Trump’s first term, said she believes a second Trump administration, less beholden to such groups, might be incentivized to use the tool more broadly to try to improve labor standards that give Mexico an unfair competitive edge.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law, as well as the International Law Colloquium. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.

Georgia Law welcomes four new professors, including two international law scholars

The University of Georgia School of Law is pleased to welcome four new professors this fall: Pamela Foohey, Assaf Harpaz, Desirée LeClercq, and Meighan Parker. Of the four, LeClercq and Harpaz are international law scholars who will contribute to Georgia Law’s ongoing tradition of excellence in international law that dates to 1940.

Desirée LeClercq, Assistant Professor of Law & Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center

LeClercq teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law. She serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. Specializing in international and labor law, LeClercq has recently published extensively in flagship and specialty law reviews, including the Fordham Law Review, the Virginia Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, the Administrative Law Review, the American University Law Review and the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Notably, her Columbia Journal of Transnational Law article titled “A Worker-Centered Trade Policy” won the ComplianceNet Outstanding Junior Publication Award. LeClercq has also contributed several book chapters on international trade and labor, and she is a frequent contributor to Fortune.

Previously she served as a director of labor affairs in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 2016 to 2020, during which time she was an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. Additionally, LeClercq worked for nearly a decade as a legal officer at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and served as staff counsel for the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

Assaf Harpaz, Assistant Professor of Law

Harpaz’s scholarly focus lies in international taxation, with an emphasis on the intersection of taxation and digitalization. He teaches classes in federal income tax and business taxation. He explores the tax challenges of the digital economy and the ways to adapt 20th-century tax laws to modern business practices. In addition, he researches the use of tax expenditures and the historical expansion and politicization of the tax expenditure budget in the U.S. federal income tax system.

His recent scholarship includes his international tax article published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law titled “International Tax Reform: Who Gets a Seat at the Table?” His work has also been published in Law and Contemporary Problems, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Yale Journal of International Law and Tax Notes International. Moreover, he has contributed expert pieces for Newsweek, WalletHub, FinanceBuzz and the Maurer Global Forum.

Before joining UGA, Harpaz served as a visiting assistant professor at the Drexel University Kline School of Law teaching courses in federal income tax and enterprise tax.