In An Equal Place, Scott Cummings focuses on the movement for a living wage in Los Angeles and explores greater implications for the role of contemporary lawyers outside of the courtroom. The campaign to implement a living wage in L.A. was the most famous effort in the country, and advocates for it were largely successful, in part because they used the law to advance their agenda.

1. From Riots to Recession: The Challenge to Low-Wage Work in Los Angeles 2. Garment Workers: Fighting to End Sweatshops 3. Day Laborers: Organizing the Corner 4. Retail Workers: Negotiating Community Benefits 5. Grocery Workers: Blocking the Big-Box Invasion 6. Truck Drivers: Challenging Misclassification 7. An Equal Place? Empirical Appraisal and Theoretical Implications

"A deep dive into how lawyers and organizers have worked together to advance economic justice in Los Angeles. Cummings is honest about the fault lines, but his case studies and analysis support much optimism about the ways lawyers can help communities build power to fight inequality. A profoundly inspiring book."-- Jennifer Gordon, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School, and author of Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights "Cities have long been laboratories of American democracy, and Los Angeles has led the nation in crafting innovative campaigns to challenge the exploitation of low-wage immigrants in precarious jobs. Through a series of richly documented case studies, Cummings reveals the critical but often invisible role of lawyering in the legendary successes of the L.A. labor and immigrants' rights movements, lifting up the contribution of legal mobilization to this key arena of social change."-- Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, and author of L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement "An Equal Place: Lawyers in the Struggle for Los Angeles is a remarkable book. It takes scholarship on lawyers and social movements in a new direction, grounding it in a compelling analysis of a place (Los Angeles) and an issue (income inequality). Scott Cummings shows how lawyers working with social movements can make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged persons and how law was used to help transform the low wage economy in one American city."-- Austin Sarat, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science, Amherst College "A landmark study of the contemporary labor movement in Los Angeles. Cummings reveals how tenacious organizing and innovative policy making from the bottom up, supported by savvy lawyering, can transform low-wage work and create the path to prosperity for all. It is a testament to courage and a call to further action."-- Maria Elena Durazo, California State Senator and former Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor

Selling point: Examines economic inequality in Los Angeles with an interdisciplinary approach encompassing the study of law and society, social movements, immigration, and labor Selling point: Looks at the fight to expand labor rights from the perspectives of both nonprofit and for-profit legal advocates Selling point: Explores how lawyers can exert influence outside of court, in campaigns, and what the outcomes are in terms of social change

Scott L. Cummings is the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He is faculty director of the Program on Legal Ethics and the Profession (LEAP), and a longtime member of the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Selling point: Investigates the multi-faceted role of law in challenging the conditions of key low-wage industries in Los Angeles from the 1992 civil unrest through the 2008 recession Selling point: Contests critical accounts of lawyering for social change through in-depth study of leadership and legal mobilization in economic justice campaigns Selling point: Examines how the labor movement builds union density and political power through development of community alliances and innovative sectoral strategies at the local level Selling point: Reveals how social movement struggle over city power is shaping the future of work in America