The Lora Jo Foo Papers document her work as a lawyer, activist, and labor organizer, advocating for the rights of immigrant workers in the U.S., primarily via the Asian Law Caucus and Sweatshop Watch. Included are legal and legislative documents from garment worker and sweatshop labor lawsuits and legislative initiatives in which Foo was involved: the Korean immigrant electronic workers (In re: USM Technology, for unpaid wages); Cuadra v. California Labor Commissioner (overturning State policy of awarding partial rather than full wages to workers who utilize its hearing process); Bay Area Garment Industry (charges of conspiracy between clothing manufacturers, designers and retailers, and passage of California Assembly Bill 633); and Chan v. Ocean Garment (re: liability for unpaid wages). Other cases include: Florentino V. Ramirez et al. v. American Mutual Protective Bureau (Filipino private security guards allegedly being transferred away from their jobs due to their accents); 1980 San Francisco Hotel Strike (stalled contract negotiations between hotel workers and the Hotel Employers Association); St. Francis Maids Arbitration (dispute between St. Francis Hotel and Local 2 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union re: maids being allowed to take their breaks). Types of materials include correspondence and emails, writings, audiovisual materials, reports, grant proposals, speeches, interviews, legislative documents, legal files, notes, research files, conference materials, and memorabilia. There are also printed materials generated by Sweatshop Watch; conference materials from the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China; the National Lawyers Guild; and videotaped interviews.

[NOTE: The contents list for this collection is not online. Contact the Sophia Smith Collection if you would like one sent to you.]