Employment Law

Welcome! Since most of us have been employees, and some may even have been employers, this class should have something for everyone. 

Employment Law is a survey of the principal laws that regulate the employment relationship outside the context of a collective bargaining agreement.  The topics covered include the establishment of the employment relationship including employee versus independent contractor status and the “employment-at-will” doctrine; the hiring process; the employer’s right to establish terms and conditions of employment; wage and hour regulation; employee privacy in the workplace (grooming and dress issues, freedom of expression, regulation of off-work activity); termination of the employment relationship including restrictions on post-employment activity; and the role of alternative dispute resolution processes in resolving employment law disputes.  Emphasis is placed on the distinctions between the rights of governmental versus private sector employees; the overlapping roles of statutes, personnel policy manuals, and individual employment contracts in regulating employment; and the erosion of the “at-will” employment doctrine. 

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. Recognize when a factual scenario describes a potential violation of employment law.

2. Develop arguments using statues, regulations, precedent, theory animating those sources of law, and contemporary and historical social evidence.

3. Apply the appropriate legal test to a factual scenario, recognizing that sometimes, more than one source of law (and legal test) may be a possible route to liability. 

4. Link appropriate defenses to each legal test and identify the defenses that may be available for a factual scenario.

5. Explain what employer practices may lead to liability and how to defend an employment claim; and also suggest ways an employer might proactively prevent legal challenges.