Presenter Bio - Daiquiri Steele

Daiquiri Steele, J.D., Ph.D. serves as an Assistant Professor of Law at The University of Alabama School of Law. She 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 scholarship has been published in leading law journals. 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 a labor and employment mediator and arbitrator, as well as an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Professor Steele 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 formerly served as a Forrester Fellow at Tulane University Law School. 

She is also a former 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 a 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 Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of State and Local Government Law, a member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress Advisory Council, and an appointed member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 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.