Contributor

Seth D. Harris

Member of Dentons' Public Policy and Regulation practice.

Seth D. Harris was nominated to be the Deputy Secretary of Labor on February 23, 2009. Prior to joining the Department, Mr. Harris served as a Professor of Law at New York Law School and Director of its Labor & Employment Law Programs. While teaching at the New York Law School, Mr. Harris was also a Senior Fellow at the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association and a member of the National Advisory Commission on Workplace Flexibility.

Prior to his work at the New York Law School, Mr. Harris served for seven years at the Department of Labor during the Clinton Administration, spanning the tenures of Secretaries Robert Reich and Alexis Herman. During this time, Mr. Harris served as Counselor to the Secretary of Labor and as Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy, among other policy-advising positions.

Mr. Harris is a graduate of the New York University School of Law where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Law and Social Change. Mr. Harris served as a law clerk to Judge William Canby of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to Judge Gene Carter of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

On May 26, 2009, Seth Harris was sworn in as the eleventh Deputy Secretary of Labor since the position's creation in 1986. He served as the Acting Secretary of Labor during the period after Secretary Hilda Solis left the department in January 2013 until Thomas Perez was confirmed as Secretary of Labor in July 2013.