ALI Council Member Anton Hajjar: His Career Path Took Some Interesting Turns
by Nina Amster
ALI Council member Anton Hajjar
The legal profession is not "one size fits all." Because there is no single prescribed undergraduate course of study to prepare for law school, aspiring attorneys enter law school from a wide variety of backgrounds and work experiences. Labor lawyer Anton Hajjar, who was elected to ALI's Council in May 2010, is a prime example.
Raised in Brooklyn, Anton George Hajjar, a third-generation Syrian-American, is the only member of his family of six children to graduate from college. In 1969, he received his B.A. in philosophy from Fordham University. Unsure of his next steps, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine and then worked as a U.S. Customs inspector for three years. He also took on a variety of other jobs as disparate as truck driver, cab driver, factory worker, and hospital attendant. Finally, still seeking his true vocation, he decided to try law school. From his travels as a merchant mariner he knew and liked the New Orleans area, so he applied to and was accepted at Tulane Law School, serving as a member of the law review and graduating with honors in 1975. He clerked for the revered Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. When asked what inspired him to go to law school, he said he found the idea of justice compelling. He also noted that, unfortunately, he must now warn people against confusing law with justice!
As a principal at the Washington, D.C., law firm of O'Donnell, Schwartz & Anderson, P.C., which he joined in 1982, Mr. Hajjar represents unions striving to protect workers from inequities on a daily basis. He considers it a "dream come true" to have a job representing ordinary working people. His interest in unions stems from his former experiences as a "working stiff," particularly from his days as a merchant mariner. He quickly concluded from his experiences in the workplace that without a union an individual worker was helpless in his dealings with the employer. In law school he learned about the National Labor Relations Act, which was designed to empower workers to act together to better their wages and working conditions. After his time clerking for Judge Wisdom, it seemed destined that he would work for the National Labor Relations Board, first as a field attorney in the New Orleans regional office and later in the NLRB Appellate Court and Contempt Litigation and Compliance Branches in Washington, D.C.
Although his many clients are American labor unions, Mr. Hajjar has also been very interested in the protection of workers and in good union practices on an international level. He has been an adviser to the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center). In that capacity he performed an evaluation of the Solidarity Center's program of cooperation with Egyptian unions and has had ongoing involvement regarding labor issues in the Middle East. When they function as intended as secular, egalitarian, and democratic institutions, he said, unions are particularly valuable in that part of the world.
Elected a member of ALI in 2002, Mr. Hajjar serves as an Adviser for the Institute's project on the Restatement Third of Employment Law. He is married to Sandra Hughes, who specializes in aging issues and who is a great-granddaughter of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, a founder of the ALI. They live in Chevy Chase, MD, and have two children, both born in Lebanon and adopted as infants. He is an adviser to Arab- and Muslim-American civil rights organizations, and a pro bono attorney representing individuals in employment-discrimination cases, particularly those arising after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Mr. Hajjar said he is privileged to represent unions, which were invented by workers themselves for self-protection, and which help level out income disparity in society through collective bargaining. He acknowledged, however, that their influence and impact in the private sector has declined over the years. Expressing his regret at this trend, he posed the question of what entity, in the absence of unions, would look out for the interests of ordinary working people and their families and not just those of corporations. He also observed that in recent months public-sector unions have been under severe political pressure, but expressed confidence that the debate about the value of collective bargaining to society will ultimately result in increased support for unions in America in both the public and the private sector.
Come what may, Mr. Hajjar intends to continue to advocate for the interests of workers here and abroad. His unique and varied background, talents, and experiences are a welcome addition to the ALI Council.