AG Brown names Marsha Chien to head the newly created Worker Rights Unit

Attorney General Nick Brown has named Marsha Chien, a leader with an extensive track record in civil rights and workers’ rights, to serve as the first Unit Chief of the newly created Worker Rights Unit in the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).

Since joining the AGO in 2015, Chien has built an excellent record in the Civil Rights Division and the Solicitor General’s Office, serving most recently as a Deputy Solicitor General. Chien’s extensive experience litigating cases on behalf of workers, as well as her background helping to launch new units, made her an ideal leader for this initiative.

Brown launched the Worker Rights Unit in November to lead the AGO’s effort to uphold Washington state’s nation-leading worker protections and address wage theft. Amid an affordability crisis and with an absence of enforcement of worker protection laws by the federal government, the issue is urgent for many people across Washington fighting to be paid what they’re owed.

“With Marsha Chien at its helm, our new Worker Rights Unit will stand up for the most vulnerable people in our community and make sure they receive fair treatment and honest pay for their labor,” Brown said. “Marsha’s keen legal mind and commitment to justice will help Washington do right by the people who power our state’s economy.”

“Our team will use all of our state laws to protect workers – to make sure they are paid a fair wage for the work they perform, that they have safe workplaces, that they are treated equally and with dignity at work no matter who they are, and that they can organize and speak to each other about their workplace rights,” Chien said. “Our community and economy thrive when workers are protected.”  

A dedicated advocate on behalf of workers, she previously worked on these issues at Legal Aid at Work and handled key litigation for the AGO. As a legal aid attorney in California, Chien successfully led a federal bench trial on behalf of a U.S. citizen who was denied a law enforcement job because he was previously undocumented and served as co-counsel on behalf of a purported class challenging a national employer’s use of arrest records to screen job applicants. 

After she moved back to Washington, Chien joined the AGO’s Civil Rights Division, where she led or worked on a myriad of high-profile enforcement matters. She successfully led a federal jury trial against a private detention facility for failing to pay immigrant detainees the minimum wage and litigated on behalf of a diverse swath of workers, including mushroom packers and flight attendants. Additionally, she has worked on many of Washington’s challenges to the federal government’s unlawful actions, such as the Muslim travel ban, attempt to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, coercive threats to federal funding, as well as immigration arrests at our state courthouses.

Chien has earned recognition including the AGO’s William V. Tanner Award, the AGO’s Excellence Awards, and, along with her colleagues, the Latino Bar Association of Washington’s Abogadas Excepcionales Award in 2022, the Legal Foundation of Washington’s Charles A. Goldmark Award in 2018, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Defender of Justice Award. She obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a Toll Public Interest Scholar, and her Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University. She also clerked for United States District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman in the Western District of Washington. 

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