Daiquiri Steele, J.D., Ph.D. teaches Employment Discrimination, Employment Law, Labor Law, Education Law, Torts, Civil Rights, and Legislation & Regulation. Professor Steele is an expert in anti-retaliation and whistleblower law. Her research critically assesses the adequacy of existing legal frameworks designed to protect individuals who report a broad spectrum of misconduct, including discrimination, noncompliance with labor standards, fraud, regulatory violations, and ethical breaches. Her scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, UC Irvine Law Review, Washington Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Georgia Law Review, and Boston University Law Review. She is also a co-author on the 2nd edition of the casebook LEARNING EMPLOYMENT LAW.
Professor Steele is the 2024 recipient of the Michael J. Zimmer Award, a national award recognizing a rising scholar who values workplace justice and community and who has made significant contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship. She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, a recipient of the National Bar Association 40 Under 40 Best Advocates Award, a recipient of the Award of Achievement for Outstanding Service to the Profession by the State Bar of Georgia YLD, a graduate of the Georgia Young Lawyers Division Leadership Academy, and an ABA on the Rise Top 40 Young Lawyers Award recipient.
Professor Steele originally joined The University of Alabama School of Law in a hybrid administrative/faculty role as Director of Diversity & Inclusion and Assistant Professor of Law in Residence in 2016. From 2019 to 2021, she served as a Forrester Fellow at Tulane University Law School before rejoining the Alabama Law faculty.
Professor Steele formerly served as a Civil Rights Attorney with the U.S. Department of Education, where she provided legal counsel relating to federal investigations of discrimination involving the nation’s school districts, colleges, universities, and state educational agencies. She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, where she assessed federal contractors’ compliance with employment discrimination laws.
She is the Immediate Past Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law and a former Chair of the AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of State and Local Government Law, Chair of the ABA Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee, the Civil Rights and Social Justice Liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, a member of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law EEO Content Subcommittee, and an appointed member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
She previously served as a Commissioner on the ABA Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Public Education, Diversity Director for the ABA Young Lawyers Division (YLD), Assembly Speaker/Chief Policy Officer for the ABA YLD, and Director of ABA Involvement for the State Bar of Georgia YLD.
She graduated with Bachelors of Arts degrees in both Economics and Political Science from Spelman College where she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law, her Masters degree in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University, and her Ph.D. in Business Administration from Hampton University.
Beyond her academic and professional endeavors, Professor Steele is actively engaged in multiple charitable and civic organizations, including Girls Inc. of Central Alabama, Heart Gallery Alabama, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Central Alabama Chapter, and Kids Play Alabama. In 2024, she was named Volunteer of the Year by the Birmingham Business Journal.