Sarai King Oza

Sarai represents unions and individuals in all aspects of labor and employment law.
 

Sarai has advocated for public and private sector workers in a variety of industries, including food retail, municipal services, higher education, meatpacking, and poultry processing. She has experience litigating employment discrimination and administrative law cases, as well as complex constitutional claims.
 

Sarai joined Deats Durst & Owen in Austin, TX in August 2022 after serving as Assistant General Counsel to the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) in Washington, DC. There she counseled the union on a variety of legal matters including bargaining, organizing, employment discrimination, legislative advocacy, immigration, health and safety, and union governance. Sarai drafted state and federal legislation and model contract language, including health and safety agreements, meatpacking workers’ bills of rights, paid leave policies, and anti-retaliation protections for undocumented workers.
 

Sarai has spoken on a variety of labor and employment legal issues at professional conferences and seminars for union attorneys, officers, staff, and members.
 

Before joining the UFCW Sarai represented progressive unions and civil rights organizations at Weissman & Mintz, a union-side firm in New York and New Jersey. There, Sarai arbitrated and litigated individual cases and worked on complex litigation, including novel state constitutional claims about enforcing private contractual rights and the right to protest on private property.
 

Prior to that Sarai served as a lawyer and an organizer with New-York-area food service workers at UNITE HERE! Local 100. She fought the city’s attempts to add tip credit exemptions for stadiums and arenas, negotiated CBAs, and participated in airport and retail organizing campaigns.
 

Sarai has a longstanding interest in equity and justice. Before practicing labor and employment law, Sarai worked with notable civil and human rights legal organizations including Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (LLDEF) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
 

Sarai obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Northampton, MA in 2003 and a Master’s of Science in Violence, Conflict and Economic Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, UK, in 2008. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2011 and currently is licensed to practice in the states of New York and Texas and a number of federal courts.