Curriculum Vitae

Catherine Laura Fisk

Professor of Law
Duke University Law School
Science Drive & Towerview Road
Durham , NC 27708-0360
(919) 613-7196
fisk@law.duke.edu

Academic Employment

Professor of Law, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Since 2004.
Professor of Law, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. 2003‑2004.
Professor of Law & William M. Rains Fellow (1996‑2003), Associate Professor (1992‑96), Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California.
Visiting Professor, Duke University School of Law, Durham, North Carolina. 2002.
Visiting Professor, University of California at Los Angeles Law School. 1997, 1999, 2002.
Lecturer, University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, Wisconsin. 1991.
Courses Taught: Civil Procedure, Employment Law, Employment Discrimination, Labor Law, Employment Law and Intellectual Property Seminar, Readings in Ethics, Employee Benefits Seminar, Workers’ Rights Under International Law, Legislation Seminar, Legal Writing.

Education

LL.M., 1995, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Thesis: Preemption and the Development of Federal Common Law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
J.D., 1986, University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall)
Order of the Coif; Executive Editor & Student Articles Editor, Berkeley Women's Law Journal;
Vice-President, Berkeley Public Interest Law Foundation
A.B., 1983, summa cum laude, Princeton University
Phi Beta Kappa; Buchanan Prize winner (best academic record in Politics Department); New York Herald Prize winner (best senior thesis on American government); National Merit Scholar

Legal Employment

Arbitrator. 2003‑present.
Attorney, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 1990‑1991. (Civil federal appellate litigation.)
Associate, Rogovin, Huge & Schiller, Washington, D.C. 1988‑1990 (Trial, appellate, administrative, and arbitral litigation representing unions, ERISA funds, and other civil litigants.)
Law Clerk for Judge William A. Norris, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Los Angeles, California. 1987‑1988.
Staff Attorney, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, California. 1986‑1987.
Intern, Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon & Rubin, San Francisco, California. 1985‑1986. (Laborlitigation.)
Intern, Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, Oakland, California. Summer 1985. (Welfare rights litigation.)
Summer Associate, Law Offices of Gerald W. Markham, Kodiak, Alaska. Summer 1984. (Admiralty and maritime personal injury litigation.)

Books

Labor Law Stories (Foundation Press, 2005) (editor with Laura J. Cooper)

Articles and Book Chapters

Credit Where It’s Due: The Law and Norms of Attribution, __ Georgetown Law Journal. __ (forthcoming 2006).
Privacy, Power, and Humiliation in the Workplace: The Problem of Appearance Regulation, 66Louisiana Law Review 29 (2006).
The Story of Ingersoll Rand v. Ciavatta: Employee Inventors in Corporate Research & Development — Reconciling Innovation with Entrepreneurship, in Employment Law Stories, Samuel Estreicher & Gillian Lester, eds. (Foundation Press, forthcoming 2006).
The Story of Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB: Labor Rights Without Remedies for Undocumented Immigrants, in Labor Law Stories, Laura Cooper & Catherine Fisk, eds. (Foundation Press, 2005) (with Michael J. Wishnie).
The Story of Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB: The Rules of the Workplace for Undocumented Immigrants, in Immigration Stories, David Martin & Peter Schuck, eds. (Foundation Press, 2005) (with Michael J. Wishnie).
Knowledge Work: New Metaphors for the New Economy, 80 Chicago-Kent Law Review 839 (2005).
In Defense of Filibustering Judicial Nominations, 26 Cardozo Law Review 331 (2005) (with Erwin Chemerinsky).
What Is Commercial Speech? The Issue Not Decided in Nike v. Kasky, 54 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1143 (2004) (with Erwin Chemerinsky).
Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles and Beyond: A New Form of Unionism in the 21st Century? in The Changing Role of Unions: New Forms of Representation (Phanindra Wunnava, ed.) (M.E. Sharpe 2004) (withErickson, Milkman, Mitchell, and Wong).
Authors at Work: The Origins of the Work-for-Hire Doctrine, 15 Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 1 (2003).
Union Lawyers and Employment Law, 23 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 57 (2002).
Reflections on the New Psychological Contract and the Ownership of Human Capital, (Symposium on TheNew Psychological Contract), 34Connecticut Law Review 765 (2002).
Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations, 40 British Journal of Industrial Relations 543 (2002) (with Erickson, Milkman, Mitchell, and Wong).
Unions and Low-Wage Immigrant Workers: Lessons from the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles, 1990‑2002, Center for the Study of Law and Society Working Paper Series, available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/csls/lss/ (with Erickson, Milkman, Mitchell, and Wong).
Humiliation at Work, 8 William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 73 (2001).
The Expressive Interest of Associations, 9 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 595 (2001) (with ErwinChemerinsky).
Working Knowledge: Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants in Employment, and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800‑1920, 52Hastings Law Journal 441 (2001), reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Society (Ashgate Press, forthcoming 2006).
Union Representation of Immigrant Janitors in Southern California: Economic and Legal Challenges, in Organizing Immigrants (Ruth Milkman, ed., Cornell University Press, 2000) (with Daniel J.B. Mitchell and Christopher L. Erickson).
Civil Rights Without Remedies: Vicarious Liability Under Title VII, Section 1983, and Title IX, 7 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 755 (1999) (with Erwin Chemerinsky).
Removing the ‘Fuel of Interest’ from the ‘Fire of Genius’: Law and the Employee Inventor, 1830‑1930, 65University of Chicago Law Review 1127 (1998).
ERISA Preemption of State and Local Laws on Domestic Partnership and Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Employment, in Symposium on Emerging Issues in Sexual Orientation Law, 8 UCLA Women’s Law Journal 267 (1998).
Rights in Employee Inventions and Creative Works: An Overview of United States Law, in Symposium on Cutting-Edge US Employment Issues Relevant to Contemporary New Zealand Concerns, 23 New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations 47 (1998), reprinted in 5 Intellectual Property Rights: Critical Concepts in Law 7 (David Vaver, ed., Routledge 2006).
Union Representation of Immigrant Janitors in Southern California: Economic and Legal Challenges, Working Paper of the UCLA Institute on Industrial Relations (1998) (with Daniel J.B. Mitchell and Christopher L. Erickson).
The Filibuster, 49 Stanford Law Review 181 (1997) (with Erwin Chemerinsky).
The Last Article About the Language of ERISA Preemption? A Case Study of the Failure of Textualism, 33Harvard Journal on Legislation 35 (1996).
Lochner Redux: The Renaissance of Laissez-Faire Contract in the Federal Common Law of Employee Benefits, 56 Ohio State Law Journal 153 (1995).
Employer-Provided Child Care Under Title VII: Toward an Employer's Duty to Accommodate Child Care Responsibilities of Employees, 2Berkeley Women's Law Journal 89 (1986).

Essays and Book Reviews

Foreword — Looking for a Miracle? Women, Work, and Effective Legal Change, 13 Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy 1 (2006).
A Founders’ Roundtable Discussion, 20 Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice 20 (2005).
Book Review, Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power, by Doron S. Ben-Atar, 79 Business History Review 367 (2005).
Book Review, In Pursuit of Equity by Alice Kessler-Harris, 51 Buffalo Law Review 101 (2003).
Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations, California Policy Options (2002) (with Erickson, Milkman, Mitchell, and Wong).
Introduction to Symposium on Rampart Police Scandal: Policing the Criminal Justice System, 34Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 537 (2001) (with David W. Burcham).
The Filibuster, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (2000) (with ErwinChemerinsky).
In Defense of the Big Tent: The Importance of Recognizing the Many Audiences for Legal Scholarship, 34Tulsa Law Journal 667 (1999) (with Erwin Chemerinsky).
Owning Employees’ Knowledge, 2 Perspectives on Work 12 (1998).
ERISA Preemption of State and Local Laws on Domestic Partnership and Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Employment, 12 California Labor and Employment Law Quarterly 11 (1998) (with Julianne Scott).
Book Review, Lawyers Against Labor by Daniel Ernst, 41 American Journal of Legal History 152 (1997).
Still 'Learning Something of Legislation': The Judiciary in the History of Labor Law, 19 Law & Social Inquiry 151 & 217 (1994) (review essay and rejoinder).

Works in Progress

Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property in the Nineteenth Century (book manuscript).
Labor Law in the Contemporary Workplace (casebook) (under contract with West Publishing Co.) (with Christopher Cameron, Roberto Corrada, Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, and Martin Malin).
Criminal Punishment for Workplace Safety Violations (with Sara Sun Beale).
Employment Without Law (an empirical study of employment arbitration).
Organizing Immigrants: The Resurgence of American Labor Law.

Other Writings

“Judges Do Make Law: It’s Their Job,” op-ed, USA Today (Aug. 24, 2005) (with Erwin Chemerinsky)
“Senate Must Reject Nominee Who Blatantly Distorts Truth,” op-ed, LA Daily Journal (Nov. 12, 2003).
“No to a Far-Right Court: Use Filibusters,” op-ed, Los Angeles Times (Nov. 11, 2002) (with ErwinChemerinsky).

University Service

Duke University
Current: University Academic Council; University Academic Programs Committee; Faculty Advisor, Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy ; Law School Strategic Planning Committee; Advisory Board, Children’s Education Law Clinic; Lateral Hiring and Workshops Committee; Co-editor, Duke Law Working Paper Series.
Past: Appointments Committee (2004‑05)
University of Southern California
Steering Committee, Center for Law, History and Culture; Judicial Clerkships Committee
Loyola Law School
Co-editor, Loyola Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Working Paper Series; Faculty advisor to Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review; Dean’s Advisory Committee; Appointments Committee; Student Journals Committee; Judicial Clerkships and Careers in Academe Committee; Curriculum Committee; Disability Committee; Clinics and Pro Bono Service Committee; Sexual Harassment Committee; Research and Sabbaticals Committee

Selected Speeches and Presentations

“Credit Where It’s Due,” Paper presented at “IP@Work” Conference, Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, Israel, December 2005, and at Oxford University Intellectual Property Center, St. Peter’s College, Oxford, England, January 2006.
“No-Compete and Trade Secret Law,” Institute of Judicial Administration and the Center for Labor and Employment Law, NYU School of Law, November 2005.
“Recent Developments in the Law of Employment Discrimination,” CLE Programs Sponsored by Guam Bar Association, Saipan Bar Association of Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, and the Judiciary of the Republic of Palau, August 2005.
“Employment Law for Supervisors,” Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys, Dallas, Texas, July 2005.
“Labor Law for the Non-Unionized Workplace: What Employment Lawyers Should Know About Labor Law,” Pacific Coast Labor and Employment Law Conference, Seattle, Washington, May 2005.
“Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property,” Information Ecology Lecture, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, April 2005.
“Labor Law and the Four Obstacles to Union Organizing,” Third Reconstruction Institute Conference on Labor and Community Organizing, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, April 2005.
“Same-Sex Marriage as a Civil Rights Issue,” Randolph Thrower Symposium, Emory University Law School, Atlanta, Georgia, February2005.
“The History of Intellectual Property as a Term and as a Concept,” Keynote Address, Wisconsin Symposium on Legal History, sponsored by the Institute for Legal Studies and the University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, Wisconsin, November 2004.
“Employment Law Update,” Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts for the Tenth Circuit. Park City, Utah, July 2004.
“Employment Law: What Managers Need to Know,” Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys’ Annual Conference, Park City, Utah, July 2004.
“Knowledge Work: New Metaphors for the New Economy,” the Kenneth Piper Lecture at Chicago-Kent Law School, Chicago, Illinois, April2004.
Moderator, “Confronting Workers’ Compensation Issues in California,” conference sponsored by USC Law School, RAND Corp., Communications Institute, and the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation, Los Angeles, California, February 2004.
“Ideas at Work,” Hagley Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society, Wilmington, Delaware, November 2003.
“What does it mean to call literature property?” Comment, USC Center for Law, History, and Culture, Los Angeles, California, October 2003.
Panelist, “Labor Law on the Edge: Doctrinal Strategies,” Labor Law Group, Alton, Ontario, Canada, June 2003.
Discussant, Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA, and USC Interdisciplinary Law & Humanities Junior Scholars Workshops at Columbia University, New York, New York, June 2003, and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, June 2002.
Commentator, University of Southern California Center for Law, History and Culture annual lecture, Los Angeles, California, March 2003.
“A Free Labor Ideology for the Ingenious Tinkerer: Class and the Ownership of Employee Patents, 1880‑1925,” presented at conference on “Law and the Disappearance of Class,” jointly sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Department of History, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2002.
“A Free Labor Ideology for the Ingenious Tinkerer: Class and the Ownership of Employee Patents, 1880‑1925,” Hagley Center Series, Wilmington, Delaware, November 2002.
Panelist, “Civil Liberties After 9/11,” New York State Appellate Judges’ Conference, Saratoga, New York, November 2002.
Panelist, AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Western Regional Meeting, San Francisco, California, October 2002.
Employment Law Update, Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts for the Tenth Circuit, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 2002.
“Unions and Low-Wage Immigrant Workers: Lessons from the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles, 1990‑2002,” Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley, California, April 2002.
Keynote speaker, Berkeley Journal of Labor and Employment Law Banquet, Berkeley, California, April 2002.
“Union Lawyers and Disability Discrimination: Reflections on Toyota Motors v. Williams,” AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Western Regional Meeting. Los Angeles, California, March 2002.
“Freedom of Speech and Religion in the Workplace.” Plenary Session, 19th Annual Labor Law Conference, NLRB Region 21 - Orange County Industrial Relations Research Association - Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Anaheim, California, July 2001.
“Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations (with Daniel J.B. Mitchell, Christopher L. Erickson, Ruth Milkman, and Kent Wong). Paper given at International Conference on Union Growth, University of Toronto, Canada, April 2001.
“An Overview of American Labor and Employment Law,” American Institute for Legal Education course for European and South American lawyers. UCLA, Los Angeles, California, September 2000.
“Current Substantive Issues in Civil Rights Litigation,” Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts for the Tenth Circuit, Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 2000.
“The Lawfulness of Public Employee Strikes.” Meetings of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, Valencia and Pomona, California, March 2000.
“Statistical Proof of Employment Discrimination in the 1990s.” International Network on Transformative Employment and Labor Law, Cape Town, South Africa, March 1999.
“Employee Rights to Inventions and Intellectual Property,” Pacific Conference on Chemistry and Spectroscopy, Western Regional Conference of the American Chemical Society, Ontario, California, October 1999.
“Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles.” Paper presented at the Organizing Immigrants in Southern California conference co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the UCLA Labor Center. UCLA, Los Angeles, California, May 1999.
“Protecting Workers’ Rights: Options Under the Current Law,” AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Union Lawyers Conference, Chicago, Illinois, June 1997.
“Wrongful Demotion and Adverse Employment Actions Under the Common Law and Statutory Antidiscrimination Laws” (Paper presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association.)
“ERISA for Beginners: What Every Labor and Employment Lawyer Should Know about Employee Benefits,” Annual Meeting of the Labor and Employment Section of the Florida State Bar, Miami, Florida, February 1997.
Workshops given at University of North Carolina Law School (2002), Duke University School of Law (2002, 2005), New York University Law School (2002), UCLA Law School (1997, 2002), University of Southern California Law School (2001), Whittier Law School (2000), Vanderbilt Law School (1996).
Presented papers or served as a discussant at annual meetings of the Law & Society Association, American Society for Legal History, Business History Conference, Economic History Association, Social Science History Association, and the International Network on Transformative Employment and Labor Law, and Association of American Law Schools (various dates, 1993 to present).

Fellowships and Awards

Duke Law School Blueprint Award for Leadership (2006).
ACLU of Southern California Award for Pro Bono Service (2004).
ACLU of Southern California Distinguished Law Professor (2003).
William M. Rains Fellowship, Loyola Law School (1998—2003).
Industrial Relations Research Association Excellence in Labor and Employment Education Award (2000).
Grants to support research, Hagley Museum & Library, Wilmington, Delaware (1999 & 2000).
Law & Society Association Summer Institute (1993).
University of Wisconsin Law School fellowship (1991‑1992).

Professional and Pro Bono Service

Executive Committee (2005-present) and member (since 2000), the Labor Law Group.
ACLU National Committee on Commercial Speech (2003‑2005).
Nominating Committee, Law & Society Association (2004‑05).
Board of Directors, ACLU of Southern California (1996‑2004). Executive Committee (1998‑2000; 2003‑04); Vice-President (2000‑04).
Chair, Willard Hurst Prize Committee, Law & Society Association (2003‑04).
Advised the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Los Angeles, California, on wage and hour compliance (2004) (pro bono).
Los Angeles County Bar Association Committee on Amicus Participation (2000‑04); Section on Employment and Labor Law, Saturday Seminar Committee (2000‑01); Committee on Sexual Orientation Bias (1995‑98).
Vice-Chair, Special Committee on Investigative Oversight, City of Los Angeles (1998) (appointed pursuant to city ordinance to review allegations of discrimination by elected City officials).
American Society for Legal History Committee on Membership (1997‑1999).
Reviewer of manuscripts for Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Society Review, Policy History, Law & History, and Studies in American Political Development, Law & Humanities Junior Scholars Conference.
Petition for certiorari, Williams v. Missouri Dept of Mental Health (U.S. Supreme Court) (vicarious liability for workplace harassment) (pro bono).
On brief, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, No.s 04-1244, 04-1352 (U.S. Supreme Court) (reproductive freedom) (pro bono).
Amicus curiae brief, Nike v.Kasky, 123 S. Ct. 2554 (2003) (whether false statements about labor practices are commercial speech) (probono).
Amicus curiae brief, Quigley v. Rosenthal, 327 F.3d 1044 (10th Cir. 2003) (vicarious liability of civil rights organizations for the actions of volunteers and members) (pro bono).
Amicus curiae brief, Scott v. Pasadena Unified School District, 306 F.3d 646 (9th Cir. 2002) (constitutionality of use of race, gender and ethnicity in admissions lottery for public magnet schools) (pro bono).
Amicus curiae brief, Hunt v. Superior Court, 21 Cal.4th 984, 987 P.2d 705 (Cal. 1999) (separation of powers challenge to legislation relating to indigent health care) (pro bono).
Amicus curiae brief and argued, County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court, 21 Cal.4th, 981 P.2d 68 (Cal.1999) (survival of non-pecuniary damages in section 1983 sexual harassment suit) (pro bono).
Counsel on appeal (briefed and argued), Lam v. University of Hawai’i, 40 F.3d 1551 (9th Cir. 1994) (TitleVII challenge to gender, race, and national origin discrimination in academic hiring) (pro bono).
Advised proponents of California Ballot Proposition 186 (single-payer health care) on ERISA preemption (1994) (pro bono).
Bar Admissions: California (1986), District of Columbia (1988).