she/her

Pooja Shethji

Partner

My Legal Practice

I primarily bring cases on behalf of groups of people who have been wronged by their employers, but who might not all seek out legal help on their own.

Specifically, the class and collective action lawsuits and settlements I pursue help people stand up to their employers’ mistreatment, recover wages they rightfully deserve, and amplify their voices. Ideally, these cases also improve working conditions more broadly by deterring other companies from skirting their obligations.

I’m particularly interested in challenging systemic barriers to employment and fair pay. Some of my clients are trying to get good jobs to improve their lives, but a stale criminal record continues to undercut their chances. Others lose out on overtime pay because their employer wrongly misclassifies them as independent contractors or ineligible for (or exempt from) overtime pay. Tackling these issues can have a significant impact on many people’s lives, particularly when there’s a large company on the other side.

Many of my clients have never been involved in a lawsuit before. They have questions about the legal process and are concerned about retaliation and protecting their jobs. Those questions are natural, so I work hard to explain how the law protects them, and how their case teams will guide them every step of the way.

Notable Matters

Secured a $1.75 million settlement for a group of New York call-center interpreters whose employer allegedly failed to pay them for activities performed before and after work shifts.
Secured a $3.75 million settlement for the D.C. Office of the Attorney General in a wage theft lawsuit that claimed that a national construction firm, its general contractor, and its subcontractors misclassified hundreds of workers as independent contractors.
Representing plaintiffs in a proposed class action litigation against Walmart, challenging the company’s use of overly broad criminal history background checks and alleging that the uniform hiring policy disparately impacts Black candidates.

Credentials

B.A., Yale College
J.D., New York University School of Law, cum laude
Clerked for the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and for the Honorable Theodore D. Chuang of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Member, National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
Member, Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association (MWELA)
Member, American Bar Association, Labor & Employment Law Section
Permanent Member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference

My Story

Throughout college and law school, I explored different paths that focused on the same goal – advancing economic justice. I soon realized that addressing employment discrimination and related barriers to job stability would be one avenue to do that.

Initially, I imagined a career as a policy analyst or researcher, but I became drawn to the law because I wanted to help people and impact society at the same time. My interest in the class action space, in particular, where a single lawsuit can help hundreds or thousands of workers, is what drew me to Outten & Golden.

Our identities are often intertwined with our work, and many of us people spend more time with our co-workers than our families.

So if someone isn’t treated fairly at work, or if they’re having a hard time finding a job, it affects their finances, and their sense of self. That’s why I’m determined to make companies comply with the law and deliver on their responsibilities to their employees.

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