Julie B. Gutman Biography

Julie has devoted her career to public service, advocating for the rights of workers, immigrants and underserved communities. In late May 2010, she became executive director of the Los Angeles based  Program for Torture Victims (PTV). The first human rights organization of its kind in the United States, PTV has helped thousands of torture victims from across the world rebuild their lives. Commenting on her appointment to the post,  Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stated, “the Program for Torture Victims is not only acquiring a brilliant leader, but also a passionate and committed champion of social justice who has dedicated her career to working on behalf of the oppressed.”

Prior to joining PTV, Ms. Gutman served as vice-president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works Commissioners and senior labor advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In that capacity, she worked successfully to promote good jobs, workforce development programs and labor harmony. She mediated mutually beneficial labor-management agreements for a myriad of private sector workforces, particularly in industries with workers living on the margins.

Ms. Gutman has spearheaded legal, legislative and administrative strategies to successfully strengthen and promote Los Angeles’ prevailing wage, living wage and apprenticeship compliance programs as the model for the state. Recognizing that “nothing stops a bullet like a job,” she has also participated in developing groundbreaking construction careers policies and negotiating project labor agreements that provide a pathway to good middle-class jobs for people from all backgrounds.

For ten years, Ms. Gutman was a trial attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles, where she vigorously advocated for worker and immigrant rights. She was the only lawyer to achieve a 100 percent win record in voluminous unfair labor practices trials and federal district court injunction litigation, including injunctions against the mass discharge of low-income and immigrant workers.

In July 2010, Gutman was honored with the  “Labor Hero” award at the Joe Hill Awards Gala, one of labor’s premier events in Southern California.

Ms. Gutman’s commitment to social justice has been a career-long pursuit. After graduating from Stanford Law School, she founded a new practice at a community-based law office in the low-income and ethnically diverse city of East Palo Alto, where she served as supervising attorney and community economic development director. She is a fluent Spanish speaker who learned the language while doing human rights work in Guatemala.

Ms. Gutman served as an adjunct faculty member at Stanford Law School, clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Weigel and was awarded an American Bar Association fellowship. She currently serves on the advisory board of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

Born and raised in Chicago, Ms. Gutman graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelor’s degrees in history and law & society from Brown University. She received her J.D. from Stanford Law School.