Save the date: Labor, Discipline and the Carceral State, Friday-Saturday, May 1-2, 2026, at Cornell University ILR School.
events.cornell.edu/event/labor-...
Group photo of people of different genders, races and ethnicities smiling at the camera
A man in a suit sitting on a desk amid speech
A panel of three women and a man all laughing
A man and a woman smiling to the camera
It was an honor to be @ohiostatelaw.bsky.social for a symposium honoring the work of the legendary Ruth Colker alongside many friends & mentors @katmacfarlane.bsky.social @sbagen.bsky.social @jasmineeharris.bsky.social
@anneralph.bsky.social
Jamelia Morgan, LaToya Baldwin Clark, Liz Emens & others
As always, I invite Cornell University ILR School and Cornell Law School students to reach out if they would like to chat about the ME, Israel, Iran, Gaza, and their interrelations with campus life/politics. No preaching, no solutions, a lot of active listening, and coffee on me.
Super interesting.
Going to Berkeley School of Law next week to present my work on state alternatives to the National Labor Relations Act. Come say hi if you are around!
Whoop whoop!
@gracabi.bsky.social outlines what could happen in his paper "In Lieu of the NLRA" here. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Thrilled to share that Iβm co-organizing the ColumbiaβCornell Political Economy of Work Junior Scholars Workshop; our second year organizing the junior work law scholars.
Looking for good books/articles on prison abolition and defunding the police as alternative futures of criminal justice. What should I read/assign?
Come to ILR!
www.ilr.cornell.edu/programs/mas...
Third-Party Accommodations, Doron Dorfman Abstract Does disability rights law impose an obligation on employers, schools, and other places of public accommodation to control the behavior of coworkers, students, or other third parties to accommodate an individual with disabilities? This Article examines that unexplored legal question and shows that the law frequently fails to protect people with disabilities from the choices and behaviors of third parties. Judges often consider these major barriers to access beyond the reach of the Americans with Disabilities Actβs reasonable accommodation mandate. This Article argues that this problem results from improperly imposing the privity paradigm, a doctrine that limits the inquiry about the reasonableness of an accommodation relative to the relationship between the first party (the disabled individual) and the second party (the employer or other entity covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act). Using disability studies, legal theory, and political economy analysis, this Article shows how a narrow interpretation of the reasonable accommodation mandate has failed to adapt to our modern understanding of disability as a complex interaction between the impairment and the social environment. To address the issue, this Article introduces a new theory of third-party accommodations, which would require others to alter or cease behaviors to accommodate an individual with disabilities. This Article then suggests a normative framework that courts can use to analyze cases involving requests for third-party accommodations, including the factors that judges should balance to determine the reasonableness of a request. In highlighting the need to move beyond a constricted interpretation of reasonable accommodation, this Article imagines a new horizon for disability justice.
I am just thrilled to have my new article Third-Party Accommodations officially out @michlawreview.bsky.social! The MLR editors were a pleasure to work with and sharing the same volume as @kovarsky.bsky.social & Daniel Fryer is the cherry on top. Read it: repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol124/i...
Amazon can either have a Constitutional NLRA preempting state law or an unconstitutional NLRA that opens the door for state regulations. They cannot have both.
www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
Wrote about it here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Weβre off to a great start at COSELL (Colloquium on Scholarship on Employment & Labor Law) 2025 hosted by Seton Hall Law! A fascinating panel βExpanding Labor Lawβ ft. Andrew Elmore (BU), Cesar Rosado (Iowa), and Jonathan Iwry (Wharton), moderated by @gracabi.bsky.social (Cornell ILR) π₯³
π Excited to see my article βDEI: Son of Deferenceβ in print in the Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law!
The idea first took shape at COSELL two years ago, thanks to the great feedback there, itβs now fully developed and published.
Read on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
This goes on the door!
A new NY law, flipping the federal default by making the Board assert authority over private sector labor disputes.
Wrote about it here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Employers who argue that the NLRA is powerless shouldn't be able to argue preemption when facing state law. Unions - here's your case-study.
My take is here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
By definition, if the NLRA is gone/powerless - states gain regulatory powers of labor relations. Be careful what you wish for, California employers.
news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...
From an outsider's point of view, the suggestion of a partisan makeup of a (hypothetical) labor court is bizarre. And if we're already doing institutional design, why not a tripartite labor court composed of workers, employers, and state representatives as judges?
onlabor.org/why-not-a-re...
"The time has come for the labor movement and its lawyers to come to terms with the disintegration of federal labor governance."
My paper, now in more complete form, is forthcoming at the Wisconsin Law Review.
Available at SSRN here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
So far - no complaints (to my face) on the offline policy. Students were also intrigued by the new grade insurance policy.
Next class: Employee Classification - reading Borello and O'Connor v. Uber as good examples for the issues, rules, and social and political stakes of classification litigation.
Today I started my 4th year teaching Intro to Labor and Employment Law at Cornell ILR.
For our first class, we do a contract reading exercise, going over employment contracts assigned to groups of interns, associates, and executives. We then spot legal issues and try to negotiate solutions.
Cool!
An add for the chemical sensitivity podcast: light green background with a photo of a middle aged man with dark hair with glasses. Stating Professor Doron Dorfman MCS and Third-Party Accommodations.
Thrilled to have my work on Third-Party Accommodations (forth. @michlawreview.bsky.social) featured on the Chemical Sensitivity Podcast (@podcastingmcs.bsky.social) that amplifies voices of people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) & research about the illness. Take a listen: shorturl.at/RbT4e
My first time starts tomorrow. Will keep you posted!
First time teaching labor and employment law as an offline class - no laptops, phones, etc.
The packet I'll use is a modified version of my open-access textbook, freely available here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The final version of "DEI as Deference" is now available on SSRN.
In it, I argue that DEI rose out of judicial deference to employers. Fifty-year deference annointed employers as civil rights' governors of the workplace, a legal period that is currently changing.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The only viable path to continued federal governance of private sector labor relations during R administrations is a strong state-based alternative.
www.nlrb.gov/news-outreac...
Working paper around those themes here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
A more developed Law Rev was submitted.
In my open-access work law textbook (unshameful plug), the final sections are labor-related books, movies, documentaries, and show recs. Most are taken (with permission) from @hibahafiz.bsky.social and @jeffschuhrke.bsky.social threads.
I make students watch those.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Bumping this opportunity for feedback on junior scholars' work. Having someone read and comment on your work in progress is a rare privilege in academic life. Submit your work, tell a friend, dm for qs.
politicaleconomy.columbia.edu/news/call-pa...
Unilaterally assigning status by executive action - I hope labor advocates are taking notes
news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...
I just got the plaque for the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award from Cornell University for 2025. Deeply humbling.
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