Daiquiri Steele, J.D., Ph.D. serves as an Assistant Professor of Law. She teaches Employment Discrimination, Employment Law, Labor Law, Education Law, Torts, Civil Rights, and Legislation & Regulation. Her research examines whether and how anti-discrimination laws help ensure equal access to employment and education, both of which are crucial determinants of socioeconomic mobility. Her work focuses specifically on anti-retaliation and whistleblower law. 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, and Boston University Law Review.
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 2019-2021, 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 also served as a mediator for civil rights claims. 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.
Professor Steele serves as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law, Immediate Past Chair of the AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law, and a Council member of the ABA Section of State Local Government Law. 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, Director of ABA Involvement for the State Bar of Georgia YLD, and a member of the Alabama State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, a graduate of the Georgia Young Lawyers Division Leadership Academy, 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, and an ABA On The Rise Top 40 Young Lawyers Award recipient.
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. She 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, and Kids Play Alabama.
