Shirley Lung, Professor of Law, is a graduate of Cornell University and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar. Before coming to CUNY Law, she was Executive Director of the Center for Immigrants’ Rights, an organization that advocated for the rights of immigrant workers through policy reform and educational training for unions and service providers. Shirley continues to work with independent workers’ centers to address wage exploitation, mandatory overtime, and joint employer accountability for sweatshop conditions, affecting garment, restaurant, construction, and home care workers in New York City. She writes about issues affecting immigrant and low-wage workers as well as academic support and law school pedagogy.
As part of CUNY’s academic support faculty, Shirley works with both first-year and second-year students. She teaches Torts to first-year students through a hands-on approach that reinforces organizing and applying doctrine, and transferring knowledge to different contexts. In the third semester, Shirley teaches a skills-based course (“Individual Skills Development”) to second-year students that draws on doctrine from selected second-year required courses. She also works with second-year students at-large in the third semester through exam review sessions and individual and group study office hours. Shirley has received the Distinguished Professor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Classes of 2016, 2008, 2000, 1997, and 1994. She was also the recipient of the Public Interest Law Students Association (PILA) Award in 2011 and CUNY Community Service Award in 1995.
