Catherine Fisk
Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law
Professor Fisk teaches and writes in the areas of labor and employment law, civil procedure, civil rights, intellectual property, and legal history. She is the author of three recent and forthcoming books: Labor Law in the Contemporary Workplace (with Cameron, Corrada, Dau-Schmidt & Malin, West Publishing Co., forthcoming 2007), Labor Law Stories (with Cooper, Foundation Press 2005), and Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930 (under review). Professor Fisk's recent articles include “Preemption and its Discontents: Unintended Consequences for Democracy and the American Community,” in the Symposium on the Low Wage Worker: Legal Rights – Legal Realities, Minnesota Law Review (with Oswalt, forthcoming 2008); “The Story of Ingersoll Rand v. Ciavatta: Employee Inventors in Corporate Research & Development – Reconciling Innovation with Entrepreneurship,” in Employment Law Stories, (Estreicher & Lester, eds., Foundation Press 2007); “Credit Where It's Due: The Law and Norms of Attribution", 95 Georgetown Law Journal 49 (2006); "Privacy, Power, and Humiliation in the Workplace: The Problem of Appearance Regulation," 66 Louisiana Law Review 1111 (2006); "The Story of Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB" (with Michael Wishnie) in Labor Law Stories (Cooper & Fisk, eds., Foundation Press 2005) and in Immigration Law Stories (Martin & Schuck, eds., Foundation Press 2005); "Knowledge Work: New Metaphors for the New Economy" (Chicago-Kent Law Review 2004); "Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: A New Form of Unionism in the 21st Century and Beyond?" (with others) in The Changing Role of Unions: New Forms of Representation (Wunnava, ed., M. E. Sharpe 2004). She has also written on employee benefits, civil rights, same-sex partnerships, Senate filibusters, and labor history. She is now writing a book about the origin of the resume, a legal and social history of human capital and professional reputation in the twentieth century. She is a fellow of Duke’s Franklin Humanities Institute 2007-08 Seminar.
Professor Fisk has also taught at the University of Southern California, Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, UCLA, and the University of Wisconsin. She was the 2007 recipient of the Duke Bar Association Distinguished Teaching Award. Prior to entering law teaching, she was an attorney for the Civil Appellate Division of the United States Department of Justice; an associate at the Washington, D.C., boutique firm Rogovin, Huge & Schiller; and a law clerk for the Honorable William A. Norris, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, received a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an LL.M. from the University of Wisconsin.
Professor Fisk is a trustee of the Law & Society Association, a member of the executive committee of the Labor Law Group, and served for many years as the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Southern California. While a law professor, Professor Fisk has briefed and argued numerous appeals on a pro bono basis. She frequently speaks to judges and bar associations on employment law and civil rights and has served as a labor arbitrator.