Ms. Woods joined the firm as Of Counsel in 2018 and became a Partner in 2020. She focuses on negotiating and litigating labor and employment law matters before governmental agencies, and state and federal courts, on behalf of unions and individual employees. She also represents unions in employer bankruptcy proceedings. Melissa leads the firm’s Harassment/Discrimination Prevention and DEI Practice, where she shares her extensive experience investigating allegations of discrimination and harassment, providing legal and strategic advice on policy matters and workplace culture, and creating and conducting discrimination and harassment prevention, implicit bias and racial sensitivity trainings. In 2019, Melissa became a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, an organization that recognizes those who have distinguished themselves in the field and, in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 she was recognized by Lawdragon to be one of the 500 leading plaintiff employment lawyers in the country. Prior to joining CWS, Melissa provided advice and counsel on various labor and employment related issues at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Civil Rights Bureau of the NYS Attorney General’s Office, and another union-side labor law firm in New York City. Most recently, she was the First Deputy Commissioner and General Counsel at the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Woods is a Council Member of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, former Co-Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee of the ABA, former Board Member of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (now, Union Lawyers Alliance) and a former Trustee of Wesleyan University. Melissa graduated with honors from Wesleyan University, and received her law degree from George Washington University School of Law.