Jane Flanagan is the Director of the Illinois Department of Labor. In this role, she oversees the State’s primary labor standards agency. Jane previously served as a Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer in the Office of the Illinois Governor, where she provided counsel on legal and regulatory matters across a portfolio of state agencies.

Jane is the founder and former Chief of the Workplace Rights Bureau in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. Under her leadership, that Office drew national attention to the widespread use of non-compete agreements for low-wage workers, negotiated four federal consent decrees involving labor trafficking in the restaurant industry, and led multiple state-level legislative initiatives. Jane began her legal career in private practice representing workers in employment matters, including wage and hour and employment discrimination cases.

Jane is a member of the American Law Institute. She was previously a visiting scholar at Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Institute for Law and the Workplace and has written a number of articles on emerging workplace issues.