Desiree LeClercq

LeClercq is the Proskauer Employment and Labor Law Assistant Professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Ithaca, New York, where she teaches international labor law, U.S. labor law and employment law. She is the author or co-author of several articles (along with book chapter contributions) exploring incoherence between international labor law and U.S. trade law and constitutional law. She is currently working with Raymond Robertson (Texas A&M) and the ILO on a collaborative project empirically examining labor provisions in trade agreements to test accusations of protectionism. Her other current projects examine gender rights in trade, map out COVID-19 recovery activities across the U.N. system, and set out the implications of USMCA on U.S. jurisprudence.

Before joining the ILR School, LeClercq was the Director for Labor Affairs at USTR, where she negotiated and enforced labor-rights commitments in U.S. trade instruments. In that capacity, she frequently traveled to SE Asia, and was involved in several U.S. inter-agency task forces on forced labor, gender rights, and capacity building. Prior to joining USTR in 2016, LeClercq was a legal officer for the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland, where she specialized in maritime labor law and trade agreements. She began her legal career as a staff attorney to the Chairman of the NLRB in 2006.

LeClercq is a 2006 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, a 2002 graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington, and a member of the New York bar.