During the recently held 12th annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), hosted by Texas A&M Law, more than 40 professors and fellows from across the United States presented papers in progress on workplace law topics.
COSELL was designed to give both emerging and established scholars an avenue to present their work on critical topics impacting employment and labor law.
The 2017 COSELL program fostered collaborations among colleagues attending from law schools in Germany and England, as well as U.S. law schools including Columbia, Colorado, Denver, Illinois, Marquette, North Carolina, Ohio State, Saint Louis, Toledo, Seattle, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, and Yale, among others.
The participants examined issues through the lens of workplace conditions related to race, gender, disability, retaliation, labor, wages, the gig economy, immigration, bargaining power, vulnerability, proof structures, contracts, procedure, mentoring, and the future of the workplace.
The event also included a keynote presentation by David Foley of the National Labor Relations Board, Region 16, who is responsible for supervising and managing all litigation under the National Labor Relations Act occurring in Texas.
In COSELL tradition, two law professors received special recognition for their achievements in labor and employment law at the awards ceremony held on September 15, 2017. Recipients of the COSELL awards that evening included:
- 2017 Paul Stephen Miller Memorial Award Winner for outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment law – Marcia L. McCormick, Saint Louis University School of Law, and;
- 2017 Michael J. Zimmer Award Winner for a rising scholar who has made significant contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship – Brad Areheart, University of Tennessee College of Law.
Texas A&M Law Professor Michael Z. Green, who coordinated the 2017 COSELL program, commented shortly after the program ended: “The COSELL conference provided such a wonderful opportunity, for me and many of my colleagues throughout the country and beyond, to have rewarding exchanges about many of the challenging issues that employers and employees are facing in today’s economic environment. It left me invigorated and determined to continue my scholarly pursuits regarding workplace law while recognizing I have many new friends and fellow law professors that I may call upon if I need valuable input.”
View more images from COSELL 2017 at Texas A&M School of Law.