Before attending Penn State Law at University Park, Cao worked as a staff representative for a teachers’ union in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for more than five years. He represented teachers through grievances, administrative hearings, and arbitration proceedings and won more than $1.2 million in back pay for educators through settlement agreements and hearings awards. He expects to graduate with his J.D. this spring.
Cao’s passion for working people began at an early age growing up in a union household. While working as a conductor for a railroad, Cao’s father would explain the dangers railroad workers faced daily. Cao’s passion continued into college where he earned his master’s degree in applied sociology and wrote his thesis on post-secondary faculty unionization.
Cao is a two-time recipient of Peggy Browning Fund Fellowships where he worked with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers. Cao is the Penn State Arbitration Law Review’s Executive Communications Editor where he was selected to publish a case comment on federal sector union arbitration. He hopes to continue his journey advocating for working people after law school. He is the most recent winner of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers John F. Burton Jr. Student Writing Award for his article “Fighting The Tide – Overcoming The Rebuttable Presumption of Intoxication In The Age of Marijuana.”
Guest Simon Cao joins hosts Judson and Alan Pierce in a discussion about how evidence of marijuana use off the job affects workplace injury cases.
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