Workplace Prof Blog

Tenth Annual Colloquium Registration Open

Deborah Widiss (Indiana) has good news to share:

The annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) will be held at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Sept. 11-12, 2015, in Bloomington, Indiana. This conference, now in its tenth year, brings together labor and employment law professors from across the country. It offers participants the opportunity to present works-in-progress to a friendly and knowledgeable audience.

 Registration is now open at: http://www.law.indiana.edu/cosell.

 If you’re planning to come, please go ahead and register now; you can fill in details about the project you will present later in the summer.

 The conference is free, and we will provide all meals during the conference. Travel & hotel information is found on the website.

 Please feel free to contact any of us with questions.

 We will look forward to hosting you in Bloomington!

• Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt ([email protected])
• Jamie Prenkert ([email protected])
• Victor D. Quintanilla ([email protected])
• Deborah Widiss ([email protected])

MM

RIP Dan Markel

Usually when we note the passing of someone, it's a person who has made an impact on the field of labor and employment law, but expressing dismay at the tragic death of Dan Markel seems an appropriate exception. Even though Dan's scholarly work was in retributive justice, we shared many connections. Dan cast a net for critique of his work widely beyond his field, and likewise was always ready to comment and help on others' works, including ours. He was committed to being part of a scholarly conversation and urged others to that same goal, whether they had been writing for years or just starting out. As the founder of Prawfsblawg, Dan brought together people of many fields to write on whatever they wished and to promote their work; he did this in real life, too, organizing social events and workshops wherever he went.

Dan was so very full of life, love for his boys and friends, and generosity towards all of us that his death feels unreal. We express our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, FSU and Tallahassee community, and the broader community we too are a part of. In his memory, it seems appropriate to link to one of his last posts, Thoughts on Work-Life Imbalance from Those Left Behind.

Welcome Guest Blogger Rebecca Lee

Please welcome guest blogger Rebecca Lee, who teaches at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Rebecca teaches Contracts, Employment Law, and Employment Discrimination.  From her faculty bio page:

Professor Rebecca K. Lee teaches in the areas of employment law, employment discrimination, and contracts. Her scholarship focuses on issues of antidiscrimination law and policy in the workplace concerning how to achieve substantive equality at work, particularly gender and race equity. She has written on the relationship between diversity goals and antidiscrimination objectives, and has further examined the importance of organizational leadership in achieving substantive diversity and equality. Her work in this area has been quoted in the amicus briefs for the State of California and other amici filed in the U.S. Supreme Court for Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. More recently, her research has centered on questions of judicial decision making in order to reach impartial and fair outcomes, and also looks at judicial leadership as a significant but under-recognized aspect of a judge’s work. In addition to her scholarship and teaching, Professor Lee currently serves as the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law. In addition, she is a board member of the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF).

 

Before joining the faculty, Professor Lee was a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law at the international law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C. Her practice centered on employment and labor law, government contracts, and antitrust matters. She also worked at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs as a Crowell & Moring Public Interest Fellow. In law school, she served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy and worked as a judicial intern for the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

Prior to attending law school, Professor Lee earned a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where she received the Dean Albert Carnesale Fellowship and was co-managing editor of the Asian American Policy Review. Before pursuing her graduate studies, she joined Teach for America as a corps member and taught at an under-resourced middle school in Oakland, California. Professor Lee obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago. At Chicago, she was awarded a University Prize for her senior thesis, which was selected as the best undergraduate paper written in the area of women's studies, feminist criticism, or gender studies and subsequently published in a law journal.

A couple of her recent articles include:

Judging Judges: Empathy as the Litmus Test for Impartiality, 82 U. Cin. L. Rev. 145 (2013)

Fisher v. University of Texas at Austing: Promoting Full Judicial Review and Process in Applying Strict Scrutiny, 4 Houston L. Rev. (HLRe): Off the Record 33 (2013).

Welcome aboard, Rebecca!

MM

Introducing Guest Blogger Sachin Pandya

We are pleased to feature a two-part posting by Professor Sachin Pandya of the University of Connecticut.  Although Sachin's bio is here, most readers of Workplace Prof will know him from an active publication record across a wide range of employment law topics.  This post consider the effect of a recent California Supreme Court decisiondeals on a variety of remedies questions at the intersection of state antidiscrimination law and  federal immigration law .

CAS

Ninth Annual Colloquium Registration

Just a friendly reminder from conference organizers, Melissa Hart and Scott Moss at the University of Colorado Law School, that the deadline to register to attend, and/or present a paper at, the 9^th Annual Labor and Employment Scholars Colloquium is Friday, August 1, 2014.  The Colloquium is scheduled in Boulder between September 11-13, 2014.

 You can register and submit a paper proposal at this link:

 https//cuboulder.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_ehPf2AWQ7ihhqfz.

 Please direct any questions to Melissa Hart ([email protected]) or Scott Moss ([email protected]).

MM

Introducing Charlotte Alexander

Workplace Prof is pleased to introduce Charlotte Alexander for a guest blog on  a variety of employment law issues relating to sports. No, not the Donald Sterling scandal!  

Charlotte is an Assistant Professor of Law at Georgia State University's College of Law and also Assistant Professor of Legal Studies in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance.  More background from her website.  She's written extensively on the FLSA, including a recently posted piece on Not Enough Hours in the Day: Work Hour Insecurity and a New Approach to Wage and Hour Regulation. It couses on the "under-work" problems faced by those whose may be sent home early on never called in by their employers. 

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Welcome to Guest Blogger Joseph Seiner

Please welcome guest blogger Joseph Seiner from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Joe teaches Employment Discrimination, Principles of Labor Law, Individual Employment Law, a workshop in ADR in Employment Law, and a seminar in Comparative Employment Discrimination. From his faculty bio:

Joseph Seiner received his B.B.A., with High Distinction, from the University of Michigan in 1995, where he was an Angell Scholar. Professor Seiner received his J.D., Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif, from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, in 1998. Professor Seiner was a lead articles editor for the Washington and Lee Law Review.

Following law school, Professor Seiner clerked for the late Honorable Ellsworth Van Graafeiland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After his clerkship, he practiced law with Jenner & Block, LLP, in Chicago, Illinois, where he focused on labor and employment matters. In September, 2001, Professor Seiner accepted a position as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C., where he presented oral argument as lead counsel in the United States Courts of Appeals in employment discrimination cases.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law, Professor Seiner was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he developed and taught a seminar on comparative employment discrimination. Professor Seiner's articles have been selected for publication in numerous journals, including the Notre Dame Law Review, the Boston University Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the Boston College Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, the Hastings Law Journal, the Wake Forest Law Review, and the Yale Law and Policy Review. Professor Seiner's work has been featured in a number of media sources, including The Wall Street Journal. Upon invitation, Professor Seiner has submitted written testimony to committees in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Professor Seiner teaches courses in the labor and employment law area.

Joe is also a prolific scholar. You might check out his most recent article, now on SSRN, The Issue Class. From the abstract: 

In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S. Ct. 2541 (2011), the Supreme Court refused to certify a proposed class of one and a half million female workers who had alleged that the nation’s largest private employer had discriminated against them on the basis of their sex. The academic response to the case has been highly critical of the Court’s decision. This paper does not weigh in on the debate of whether the Court missed the mark. Instead, this Article addresses a more fundamental question that has gone completely unexplored. Given that Wal-Mart is detrimental to plaintiffs, what is the best tool currently available for workers to pursue systemic employment discrimination claims?

Surveying the case law and federal rules, this paper identifies one little used procedural tool that offers substantial potential to workplace plaintiffs seeking to pursue systemic claims — issue class certification. Rule 23(c)(4)(A) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits the issue class, allowing common issues in a class case to be certified while the remaining issues are litigated separately. The issue class is typically used where a case has a common set of facts but the plaintiffs have suffered varying degrees of harm. This is precisely the situation presented by many workplace class action claims.

This paper explains how the issue class is particularly useful for systemic discrimination claims. The paper further examines why traditional class treatment often fails in workplace cases, and addresses how the plaintiffs in Wal-Mart could have benefited from issue class certification. Finally, this Article discusses some of the implications of using the issue class in employment cases, and situates the paper in the context of the broader academic scholarship. This paper seeks to fill the current void in the academic scholarship by identifying one overlooked way for plaintiffs to navigate around the Supreme Court’s decision.

Welcome, Joe!

MM

Welcome to Guest Blogger Sandra Sperino

Welcome to guest blogger Sandra Sperino. Sandra teaches Civil Procedure, Employment Discrimination, and Torts at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. From her faculty bio page:

Professor Sperino teaches in the areas of civil procedure, torts, and employment law. She served as Chair for the AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law and is a contributing editor to several employment law books published by the American Bar Association.

Professor Sperino’s scholarship focuses on employment discrimination, and her recent work focuses on the intersection of tort and discrimination law. She is a co-author (with Grover and Gonzalez) of Employment Discrimination: Cases and Materials, an employment discrimination casebook.  Her article, The Tort Label, was selected for the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Faculty Forum.  Her recent articles are published in the Michigan Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, the George Mason Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review. 

Prior to joining the UC Law faculty, she served on the faculty at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She also was a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and the St. Louis University School of Law.

Professor Sperino was in private practice as an attorney for the litigation and labor and employment departments at Lewis, Rice & Fingersh in St. Louis. There she co-authored the successful petition for writ of certiorari and the brief argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Sell.

Professor Sperino received her J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois Law Review, and a M.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois.  After law school, she clerked for the Hon. Donald J. Stohr of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

A couple of her recent articles include,

The Tort Label (forthcoming U. Fla. L. Rev.)

Discrimination Statutes, the Common Law, and Proximate Cause (U. Ill. L. Rev.)

Welsome aboard, Sandra!

MM

Welcome to Guest Blogger Jason Bent

Please welcome guest blogger Jason Bent, who teaches at Stetson University College of Law. Jason teaches Ciil Procedure, Employment Law, and Worker Safety Law and Policy.  From his faculty bio page:

Professor Bent joins Stetson as an assistant professor of law, teaching and writing in the areas of civil procedure and employment law. Professor Bent's scholarly interests include systemic theories of employment discrimination, workplace safety regulation, and law and economics.  His recent articles have been selected for publication in the Ohio State Law Journal, the Tennessee Law Review and the Michigan Journal of Law Reform.  Prior to joining the faculty at Stetson, Professor Bent was a Shughart Fellow and visiting assistant professor at the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.

Professor Bent graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as a notes editor of the Michigan Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. Professor Bent earned his bachelor's degree in economics, with honors, from Grinnell College.  Following law school, Professor Bent served as a judicial clerk to Judge Cornelia Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and Judge Joan B. Gottschall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  Following his clerkships, Professor Bent practiced in the Labor and Employment and Appellate Practice Groups with Foley & Lardner LLP.  He later became a principal and shareholder of Smith & Bent P.C., where he practiced employment law and environmental litigation.  While in private practice, Professor Bent represented clients in International Chamber of Commerce arbitration proceedings, advocated for clients in systemic employment discrimination cases involving the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and assisted clients in interactions and negotiations with state environmental and human rights agencies.

A couple of his recent articles include:

Hidden Priors: Toward a Unifying Theory of Systemic Disparate Treatment Law 

An Incentive-Based Approach to Regulating Workplace Chemicals

Welcome aboard, Jason!

MM

Secunda Out: Departing Workplace Prof Blog

Although I stopped blogging one time before about five years ago, and of course restarted a number of months later, I have decide once and for all to take a permanent vacation from blogging.  Today is my last day on the "job." 

There are a number of reasons which led to this decision (as there always are with a decision such as this one), but none have anything to do with my wonderful co-bloggers, Rick, Jeff, Marcia, and Charlie.  They have been supportive colleagues throughout this adventure together and I thank each of them for providing some of the best blogging content around to the labor and employment law community.

No, for me, it is simply just time to move on to a new phase of my legal and academic career. I no longer have the time or energy to do the numerous posts a week that a blog such as this demands.  It's hard to believe, but I have been blogging for almost ten years now (Rick and I started blogging together in the fall of 2004).  I still enjoy learning about labor and employment law developments, new papers, conferences, and faculty news from all of you, and I love the great virtual community we have built together through this blog.  But now I will become, like the rest of you, solely a reader (and sometime commenter). 

If you have the inclination, you will still be able to find some commentary and other such stuff from me concerning labor and employment law on my Twitter feed (@psecundawrkprof).

In the meantime, my four co-bloggers will "labor" on and continue to provide the top-notch news and analysis you have come to expect from this platform.  And I suspect that there will be opportunities as well for new voices to emerge on this blog.  Please note that a new Twitter Feed has been started for this blog - @WorkProfBlog - and I hope you will consider following it.

I look forward to continuing interacting with many of you by email, during conferences, and in other assorted venues.  Thank you for making my time as a blogger here at Workplace Prof Blog so much fun. 

To quote Garrison Keillor: "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."

PS

WPB Welcomes Guest Blogger Joe Mastrosimone

Workplace Prof Blog is pleased to welcome as a guest blogger Joe Mastrosimone.  Joe has been an associate professor of law at Washburn University School of Law since 2011.  In addition to teaching labor law and employment law he also teaches in Washburn’s nationally ranked Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing program.  Before teaching, Joe served as Chief Legal Counsel for the Kansas Human Rights Commission and as senior legal counsel in the NLRB’s Office of Representation Appeals and to former-Chairman Robert Battista.  He also practiced labor and employment law with Stinson, Morrison, Hecker LLP and Crowell & Moring, LLP.  Joe received his J.D., with highest honors, from the George Washington University Law School (1998) and his B.A. from the University of Rochester (1995).

Joe will be blogging with us for the next month or so.  Look for his first post next week.

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Many thanks ...

... to my co-bloggers Paul, Jeff, Marcia, and Charlie for covering for me on Workplace Prof Blog as I transitioned to Ohio Northern.  I look forward to getting back into the blogging saddle.

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Bales Named Dean at Ohio Northern

Congratulations to our own Rick Bales, who has just been named the Dean of the Claude W. Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University. From the press release:

Ohio Northern University President Daniel A. DiBiasio announced today that Richard Bales, director of the Chase Center for Excellence in Advocacy at Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law, has been named dean of ONU’s Pettit College of Law. Bales replaces Stephen C. Veltri, who has served as interim dean for the past year, and David C. Crago, who became ONU’s provost and vice president of academic affairs last summer.

“Ohio Northern University is pleased to welcome Dean Bales to our campus and leadership team,” DiBiasio said. “Rick’s impeccable academic credentials and scholarly body of work, along with his enthusiasm and passion for teaching students, make him the ideal choice to head the Pettit College of Law.”

Bales, who joined Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law in 1998, has authored or co-authored five books and more than 80 scholarly articles. He has spoken widely on topics pertaining to dispute resolution, labor/employment law, and innovative ways of teaching law. Bales spent July 2010 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and, before starting at ONU, he will spend May 2013 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has spoken on labor/employment or ADR topics in Russia, Turkey, Malaysia, Italy, Cambodia, France, Vietnam, Colombia and Australia.

Drawn to apply at Ohio Northern by the strong sense of community among the faculty, staff, students and alumni, Bales said, “I am extremely proud to become dean of this purpose-driven, student-centered law college. I am looking forward to continuing Ohio Northern’s strong tradition of innovative law teaching, personal approach to legal education, and consistently strong bar passage and employment statistics.”

Bales is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He is actively involved in several sections of the American Bar Association, and chairs the ABA committee in charge of the national Negotiation Competition. He received several university-wide teaching and scholarship awards at NKU Chase.

“Rick is a great addition to the institution,” said Crago. “I am confident he will work closely with the faculty and staff to maintain and enhance the excellent tradition and reputation of the law college. I also would like to acknowledge Stephen Veltri’s strong leadership and dedication while serving as interim dean.”

Before arriving at Chase, Bales taught at the University of Montana Law School and the Southern Methodist University Law School in Dallas, and he served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Houston Law School. Prior to that, he litigated employment cases for the Houston-based law firm of Baker Botts and the Cleveland-based law firm of Baker Hostetler. He earned his law degree from Cornell Law School in 1993.

Congratulations to both Rick and Ohio Northern.

MM

Introducing Guest Blogger Katie Eyer

I'm pleased to introduce Katie to readers of Workplace Prof Blog, although many of you will not need any introduction.

Although Katie is  new to Rutgers-Camden Law School this year, where she teaches Civil Procedure as well as employment-related subjects, she made a name for herself while at Penn where she was a Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law. She is already well-published, having appeared in the Minnesota Law Review, the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Administrative Law Review. 

And she has already achieved distinction.  A work-in-progress, Constitutional Colorblindness and the Family, was Honorable Mention in the AALS 2013 AALS Scholarly Papers Competition, where it was described by the selection committee as "saying something new and compelling about constitutional colorblindness."

Not to mention being recognized in Jotwell for her Minnesota piece. To borrow from myself last year in commenting on That’s Not Discrimination: American Beliefs and the Limits of Anti-Discrimination Law,

One might question the wisdom of a young, not-yet-on-the-market, scholar basically arguing that most of us in her field—including me—have been wrong in important ways. But wise or not,[the article] is a remarkable piece of research and exposition. She has an ability to deal with complicated issues in a lucid and spritely prose style. I almost enjoyed being informed how wrong I was!

Like our other recent guest blogger, Charlotte Garden, Katie is a strong new voice in the labor and employment wing of the academy, and I speak for Paul, Rick, Jeff, and Marcia in welcoming her to Workplace Prof. 

CAS

Welcome Charlotte

Workplace Prof is pleased to welcome a guest blogger, Charlotte Garden. 

Although she's relatively new to the academy, having started on tenure track at Seattle in 2011, Professor Garden is well-know to a lot of our readers through her scholarship and presentations at conferences. In fact, I first met Charlotte at Seton Hall's Forum in 2010. It was clear to everyone present that she would be an strong new voice in our patch of acadmia, and that's certainly proving true. Working so far mainly in the labor area, with an emphasis on labor speech, she's not only very well published, but has already been featued in Jotwell.

We welcome Charlotte and look forward to her contributions.

CAS

Congratulations to Workplace Prof Blog ...

... on receiving this morning its two millionth visitor. Thanks to all who contribute to Workplace Prof Blog by reading, sharing ideas for new posts, guest posting (if you haven't but are interested, let one of our editors know), and for the heartwarming thanks-for-the-blog emails the editors receive every once in a while that help keep our motivational juices flowing.

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We're #20!

Jay Brown (Denver) has counted citations to blogs in cases and law journals.  He finds that Workplace Prof Blog is the 20th most-cited blog in law journals.  For the complete count, download from SSRN Law Faculty Blogs and Disruptive Innovation: The Data.

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We're #26!

Fwiw, Workplace Prof Blog has been named a "top-50 human resources blog".  I don't know the methodology, so I'm not exactly going to take this to my dean and demand a raise or anything.  Regardless, readers of this blog might be interested in perusing some of the other blogs on the list.

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AALS Section on Women in Legal Education Mentoring Program

Sandra Sperino (Cincinnati) writes to tell us of a mentoring program organized and administered by Colleen Medill (Nebraska) for the Section on Women in Legal Education of the American Association of Law Schools. Here is the announcement:

Opportunities for finding a mentor

At different stages of their careers, individuals may need different types of mentoring. Mentoring needs could be in teaching, in scholarship development, or with work-life issues and experiences. Therefore, a "onesize fits all needs for all times" approach to mentoring has proven difficult to implement in the past.

The Section on Women in Legal Education's Mentoring Program takes a different approach to traditional mentoring. The Section's program is structured as an "a la carte" program. The volunteer mentors and their expertise and experiences are listed on the Mentoring Program website. Individuals who desire mentoring are encouraged to contact directly any volunteer mentor on the list who matches the individual’s particular mentoring need(s). Mentors are available to give assistance and advice concerning teaching, scholarship and work-life issues. The URL for the site is: http://law.unl.edu/wile.

Professor Colleen Medill at the University of Nebraska administers theweb site and serves as the chair of the Mentoring Program. Her e-mail is [email protected]. You may contact Colleen if you want assistance infinding a "match" for the type of mentoring you are seeking.

The Mentoring Program Committee currently is working to develop the web site, publicize it, and expand the list of mentors. The members of the Mentoring Program Committee are: Colleen E. Medill, Chair (Nebraska); Marina Angel (Temple); Michelle Simon (Pace); Jennifer Hendricks(Tennessee); Sandra Sperino (Cincinnati); Melissa Marlow (Southern Illinois); Nicole Huberfeld (Kentucky); Kerri Stone (Florida International);and Ruth Jones (Pacific).

The Section's Mentoring Program and the web site are a work in progress. If you have suggestions for the web site and improving the quality of the program, please contact any member of the Mentoring Program Committee.

Mentoring Opportunity

The Section also is looking for individuals who want to be mentors. If you would like to be a mentor, please contact Colleen Medill for a Volunteer Mentor Application Form. Colleen can be reached at [email protected].

This is a wonderful approach to mentoring and a great service to our community. And it's nice to see so many workplace profs helping to make it a reality.

MM 

Hart & Secunda in NYT

Congratulations to Melissa Hart (Colorado) and our own Paul Secunda (Marquette), whose 2009 Fordham Law Review article on social framework evidence was quoted heavily in a New York Times article on Wal-Mart v. Dukes, which the Supreme Court will hear tomorrow. The article focused on the use of sociology and expert testimony by William Bielby (U. of Ill. at Chicago) in the class certification decision.

Great work!

MM