Employment Law surveys the law of the workplace for the U.S., with an emphasis on those areas which predominate the work of lawyers who represent employees and employers in 21st Century practice. While law school curricula include specific courses on employment discrimination, traditional labor law, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, and wage and hour law, this course will touch on all these areas and, because of their importance to day-to-day practice, emphasize some of them.
This course will also introduce important rudiments, including the vast sweep of the employment-at-will doctrine, the bar posed by workers’ compensation and other preemptive provisions, the importance of the U.S. Constitution, and the ascendance of arbitration in contemporary practice. We will then consider negligence theory in employment law and general hiring issues including immigration and testing.