Jan Collatz joined Wage Justice Center in 2019 and became Legal Director in 2023. He leads the Center’s legal work and the legal department’s staff.  During his time at the Center, Jan has enabled hundreds of workers to recover wages owed to them, holding those who stole their labor to account, including through affirmative litigation, exercising creditor’s rights in bankruptcy proceedings, as well as through pre- and post-judgment enforcement mechanisms.    

He received his JD from American University, Washington College of Law. He also holds a Maîtrise in French and Anglo-American Law from the University of Paris X, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Essex.  

Jan has practiced in the field of workers’ rights since the beginning of his legal career. He began his work focusing on the intersection of immigration and labor rights as an in-house attorney for a Worker Center in Louisiana. There, he represented immigrant workers’ facing deportation for having exercised their labor rights and fighting for the right to remain and hold those who exploited them accountable. 

Jan brings his experience supporting workers facing intersectional challenges to asserting their rights and demanding a leveling of the playing field for all workers, to the Center’s fight against wage theft and the systems that enable it.