Carlin Meyer

Professor of Law
Director, The Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families

Carlin Meyer unabashedly and courageously champions progressive politics at New York Law School and within legal education in general with such passion, grace, and intelligence that she has earned the respect of her profession for her many accomplishments. For her many contributions as an activist, scholar, and teacher, she was honored at the 2002 annual dinner of the National Lawyers Guild’s New York City chapter.

Professor Meyer’s early scholarship focused on pornography from a perspective that her professional colleagues classify as feminist, yet unique. She challenged the traditional feminist call for censorship, arguing that such a crusade would support a conservative ideology and lead to measures designed to control women’s sexuality.

Professor Meyer, who served on the New York City Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women and was a consultant to its Sexual Harassment Task Force, has also written about prostitution as a form of work and on the issue of sexual harassment.

Professor Meyer has taught and written on matters ranging from feminist jurisprudence to separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution. She is a frequent speaker and commentator on issues related to sex, sexuality, and gender, as well as issues related to labor and world trade.

Professor Meyer’s most recent work focuses on the definition and role of family in today’s society. “I’m interested in comparative systems of care—how public accountability for care is disappearing, unable to survive the assault of neo-liberal economics,” Professor Meyer says.

“Privatizing care within the family means not only that women will shoulder most of the responsibility, but also that the quality of care is likely to diminish because working women have less time to devote to it, and market-based care is profit-driven.”

“I am extremely concerned with the increasing disparity of wealth between rich and poor,” Professor Meyer says. “We take care of our richest citizens, we bail out corporate conglomerates, but we consistently fail those who are on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.”

Before New York Law School, Professor Meyer was bureau chief for labor in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and represented the State Labor Department and Workers’ Compensation Boards. She earlier served as assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of that office; as assistant general counsel to District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and as partner in the firm of Gladstein Meyer and Reif (currently Gladstein Reif & Meginniss).

Professor Meyer has served as legislative liaison for both the Sex and Law and Civil Rights committees of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She belongs to the City’s Office of Collective Bargaining Panel of Independent Arbitrators and mediates public employment disputes. She is a pro bono consultant to nonprofit organizations on labor matters and was selected by the New York State Attorney General to help oversee enforcement of a pathbreaking “Code of Conduct” for New York City’s greengrocers. She is a member of the Society of American Law Teachers, and of the Law & Society Association, and is a former president of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.