Julie Gutman, Esq., Born and raised in Chicago, Gutman received her Jurisprudence Degree from Stanford Law School. She has dedicated her career to social justice work. Most recently, as Board of Public Works Commissioner and Senior Labor Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa since July 2007, Gutman worked diligently to promote good jobs, workforce development programs, and labor harmony. She began this May as our new Executive Director. (For full biography see below)

Rebuilding Lives in the City of Second Chances
by Executive Director Julie Gutman
June 17, 2010

Dear Friends –

I started my journey as executive director of PTV last month, and each passing day deepens my sense that this is where I belong.

Perhaps it was listening to Rossana, who fled El Salvador after being beaten and raped by death squads. “I had no job, no home, no family,” said Rossana. “I wanted to die. PTV saved my life, and I am now able to help others in Los Angeles without fear I will be tortured.”

Or maybe it was meeting Kyaw, who was an activist fighting for freedom and democracy in Burma before the military regime put him in prison and tortured him six times. “When I escaped to the U.S., I felt my life was over until I found PTV,” stated Kyaw. “PTV helped me start again.”

Hearing stories like this takes me back to my childhood. I will never forget sitting around the dining room table with my cousin Irma Gutman, a Holocaust survivor who endured torture at the hands of the Nazis, and whose parents and siblings died in concentration camps. Though I was just a girl, listening to her tales of courage in the face of unspeakable horror left an indelible impression.

I have dedicated my career as an attorney to working on behalf of the oppressed – from human rights work in Guatemala with the families of the disappeared to advocating for low-wage immigrant workers and communities of color in California, most recently as a city commissioner and senior advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

And who is more oppressed than those who come to this country not just with nothing, but also with the burden and trauma of the torture they fled and must relive as they embark upon the arduous asylum process?

Leading PTV, an organization whose mission is to help rebuild the lives of the most vulnerable members of our society, is now my calling. The first human rights group of its kind in the country, PTV literally saves lives. Through its dedicated staff and volunteers, PTV provides a new lease on life to impoverished immigrant adults and children in Los Angeles whose lives have been shattered by state-sponsored torture, offering comprehensive medical, psychological, legal and case management services.

Abandoned and aggrieved by their own countries, the thousands of men and women who have walked through our doors from over 65 different countries have sought a new beginning here in Los Angeles – the city of second chances, and the largest home to torture survivors in the U.S. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of PTV, they have found that new beginning, re-entering society and the workforce and becoming contributing members of our community.

Later this month, the Los Angeles City Council, local businesses and our clients, staff and allies will kick off PTV’s 30th anniversary year by commemorating U.N. International Day in Support of Torture Victims. Please join us.

I eagerly embrace the challenge of advancing and expanding the vital work of PTV – work that, more than ever, needs your support. In the months and years ahead, I know we will do great things together. I hope you will join me in this journey.

Warmly,

Julie Gutman

Executive Director

jgutman@ptvla.org

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Julie B. Gutman Biography

As Board of Public Works Commissioner and Senior Labor Advisor to Mayor Villaraigosa since July 2007, Gutman has worked diligently to promote good jobs, workforce development programs, and labor harmony. She has represented the Mayor in bringing unions and private sector employers together, working around the clock to avert major strikes in Los Angeles and to mediate mutually beneficial collective-bargaining agreements, particularly in industries with workers living on the margins. Gutman has spearheaded legal, legislative, and administrative strategies to successfully strengthen and promote Los Angeles prevailing wage, living wage, and apprenticeship compliance programs as the model for the state. Recognizing that “nothing stops a bullet like a job,” she has also participated in developing groundbreaking construction careers policies and negotiating project labor agreements that provide for construction without work stoppages while also providing a pathway to good middle class jobs through local hire, job training, and apprenticeship opportunities to promote a strong and diverse local workforce.

Gutman’s commitment to social justice has been a career-long pursuit. After graduating from Stanford Law School, she founded a new practice at a community based law office in East Palo Alto, where she served as supervising attorney and community economic development director. While at the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, she successfully fought redevelopment projects that would have resulted in mass displacement of residents and businesses from a low-income, racially diverse community. Gutman worked to promote community preservation along with development, spearheading the formation of a local development corporation. She was appointed to the city’s economic development task force to analyze redevelopment projects and engage in master planning to leverage local, state and federal resources for housing and economic development.

For 10 years, Gutman served as a trial attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles, where she vigorously advocated for worker and immigrant rights. She was the only lawyer to achieve a 100% win record in voluminous unfair labor practices trials and federal district court injunction litigation, including injunctions against the mass discharge of low-income and immigrant workers. Winning annual outstanding performance awards, Gutman was selected as a model NLRB attorney to conduct training nationwide.

In addition, Gutman served as an adjunct faculty member at Stanford Law School, clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Weigel, and was awarded an American Bar Association fellowship. She is a fluent Spanish speaker who learned the language while doing human rights work in Guatemala. Gutman serves on the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. She is also an active marathon runner, raising funds for good causes as she runs the roads, rivers, and reservoirs of Los Angeles and beyond.

Born and raised in Chicago, Gutman graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelor’s degrees in History and Law & Society from Brown University. She received her J.D. from Stanford Law School.

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