Professor Bisom-Rapp is an internationally known scholar in the field of comparative workplace law, who writes about globalization, equal employment opportunity, occupational safety and health, and the rights of migrants. She is co-author of the path-breaking casebook, The Global Workplace: International and Comparative Employment Law - Cases and Materials, which was first published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 and in 2012 appeared in its second edition in Wolters Kluwer’s Aspen Casebook Series. Professor Bisom-Rapp is author or co-author of 23 articles and several book chapters, including a contribution in the recently published anthology Age and Equality Law(Michael Selmi, ed., Ashgate 2013). Her work has earned over 300 citations by scholars in the disciplines of law, sociology, and psychology. A member of the American Law Institute since 2007, Professor Bisom-Rapp also serves on the scientific committee and the international council of the Doctoral Research School in Labour, Development and Innovation at the Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. She is a senior academic affiliate of the University of California, San Diego's Center for Research on Gender in the Professions, and also serves on the editorial board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal. At the law school, she is presently faculty co-coordinator of the Employee Rights Self-Help Clinic, which launched in July 2013. She served as director of Thomas Jefferson’s Center for Law and Social Justice from 2004-2008, was Visiting Associate Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2003, and has taught law in China, France, and Italy. Professor Bisom-Rapp has also served as a member of the San Diego-based Employee Rights Center's professional advisory committee. Before joining Thomas Jefferson’s faculty in 1996, Professor Bisom-Rapp practiced workplace law in New York City, and completed graduate studies at Columbia University as a Wien Fellow and with funding from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
Courses include:
Employment Discrimination, Employment Law, Global Workplace Law (International and Comparative Employment Law), Labor Law, Torts.
Lifetime Disadvantage, Discrimination And the Gendered Workforce (with Malcolm Sargeant) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2016)
The Global Workplace: International And Comparative Employment Law – Cases And Materials (with Roger Blanpain, William R. Corbett, Hilary K. Josephs, and Michael J. Zimmer) (Aspen/KLI, 2d ed., 2012)
The Global Workplace: International And Comparative Employment Law – Cases and Materials (with Roger Blanpain, William R. Corbett, Hilary K. Josephs, & Michael J. Zimmer) (Cambridge University Press, 1st ed., 2007)
Editorial Board Member, Special issue of OpenEdition Books, an online publication of Presses Universitaires de Provence, France, Women at Work in the Americas (2014)
Guest Editor, Symposium issue: Decent Work in a Post-Recessionary World, 15 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 1 (2011)
Guest Editor, Symposium issue: The Pedagogy of Global Workplace Law, 25 Int. J. Comp. L.L.I.R. 1 (2009)
Editorial Board Member, Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, 2008 – present
Reading Mike: Assessing Work Law and Policy in an Age of Global Capital, 47 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 667 (2016)(invited tribute to the late Professor Michael J. Zimmer)
It's Complicated: Age, Gender, and Lifetime Discrimination Against Working Women-The United States and the U.K. as Examples, 22 Elder L. J. 1 (with Malcolm Sargeant)(2014)(reprinted in Women and the Law 759-852 (Tracy Thomas, ed., Thomson Reuters, 2015))
Cause, Effect, and Solution?: The Uneasy Relationship Between Older Age Bias and Age Discrimination Law, in The Multi-Generational and Aging Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities 97 (with Malcolm Sargeant) (Ronald J. Burke, Cary L. Cooper, and Alexander-Stamatios Antoniou eds., Edward Elgar, 2015)
Acknowledging but Transcending Gender at Work: Applying the Model of Lifetime Disadvantage and Vulnerability Theory to Women’s Poverty in Retirement, in Vulnerability and Labor (with Malcolm Sargeant) (Martha Albertson Fineman & Jonathan Fineman, eds., Ashgate/Routledge)
Context Matters: A Reply to Professor Eisenberg, 65 Fla. L. Rev. Forum 13 (2014) (invited response)
Diverging Doctrine, Converging Outcomes: Evaluating Age Discrimination Law in the United Kingdom and the United States, 44 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 717 (with Malcolm Sargeant) (2013)
North American Border Wars: The Role of Canadian and American Scholarship in U.S. Labor Law Reform Debates, 30 Hofstra Lab. & Emp. L.J. 1 (with Michael J. Zimmer) (2012) (also published in Italian as La Guerra di Confine Nordamericana: il Ruolo della Ricerca Canadese e Americana nel Dibattito sulla Riforma del Diritto del Lavoro Statunitense, in Regole, Politiche e Metodo: L’ereditÀ di Marco Biagi nelle Relazioni di Lavoro di Oggi (F. Basenghi, L.E. Golzio (a cura di), con la collaborazione di A. Russo, O. Rymkevich, I. Senatori, C. Serra, eds., Giappichelli, 2013)
Decent Work, Older Workers, and Vulnerability in the Economic Recession: A Comparative Study of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, 15 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 43 (with Andrew Frazer & Malcolm Sargeant) (2011) (reprinted in Age and Equality Law (Michael Selmi, ed., Ashgate 2013)
Learning from Troubled Times: Pursuing Equality Outside an Anti-discrimination Law Frame by Rethinking the Promotion of Safe Work during the Bush Administration, 45 U.S.F. L. Rev. 603 (2011)
Increasing the Employment Rate of Older Workers: European Objectives and US Lessons, 27 Int. J. Comp. L.L.I.R. 301 (with Malcolm Sargeant) (2011)
Puzzling Evidence from a Troubled Time: Rethinking State Promotion of Safe Work During the Bush Administration, 14 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J 295 (2010)
What We Learn in Troubled Times: Deregulation and Safe Work in the New Economy, 55 Wayne L. Rev. 1197 (2009)
Fearing Minefields But Finding Goldfields: Teaching International and Comparative Workplace Law in China or Anywhere Else, 25 Int. J. Comp. L.L.I.R. 33 (2009)
Diversity, Equality and Integration: A Workplace Perspective from the U.S.; Conclusion, in Diversity, Equality and Integration: Beyond the Law - A Comparative Study (Roger Blanpain, ed, Vanden Broele Publishers, 2008)
Globalization, Equality and Nondiscrimination: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from the U.S. on Diversity Programming, in Global Labour Market: From Globalization to Flexicurity, 65 Bull. Comp. Lab. Rels. 295 (Roger Blanpain and Michele Tiraboschi, eds., 2008)
A Critical Look at Organizational Responses to and Remedies for Sex Discrimination, in Sex Discrimination in Employment: Multidisciplinary Perspectives 273 (with Margaret S. Stockdale & Faye J. Crosby) (Faye J. Crosby, Margaret S. Stockdale & S. Ann Ropp eds., Blackwell, 2007)
How Well Do Internal EEO Alternative Dispute Resolution and Litigation Prevention Measures Advance the Traditional Goal of Anti-Discrimination Law?, 11 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 139 (2007)
Exceeding Our Boundaries: Transnational Employment Law Practice and the Export of American Lawyering Styles to the Global Worksite, 25 Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 257 (2004)
Coming to Terms with Zero Tolerance Sexual Harassment Policies, 4 J. Forensic Psychol. Prac. 65 (with Margaret S. Stockdale, Maureen O’Connor & Barbara A. Gutek) (2004)
Gauging Employer Reactions to the First Maternal Wall Suits: Commentary on Keynote Speaker Joan Williams's "Beyond the Glass Ceiling," 26 T. Jefferson L. Rev. 27 (2003)
Fixing Watches with Sledgehammers: The Questionable Embrace of Employee Sexual Harassment Training by the Legal Profession, 24 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 147 (2001)
An Ounce of Prevention is a Poor Substitute for a Pound of Cure: Confronting the Developing Jurisprudence of Education and Prevention in Employment Discrimination Law, 22 Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 1 (2001)
Discerning Form from Substance: Understanding Employer Litigation Prevention Strategies, 3 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 1 (1999)
Bulletproofing the Workplace: Symbol and Substance in Employment Discrimination Law Practice, 26 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. 959 (1999)
Introduction to Chapter on Feminism and Popular Culture, in Feminism, Media, and the Law 87 (Martha Albertson Fineman & Martha T. McCluskey eds., Oxford University Press, 1997)
Scripting Reality in the Legal Workplace: Women Lawyers, Litigation Prevention Measures, and the Limits of Anti-Discrimination Law, 6 Colum. J. Gender & L. 323 (1996)
Of Motives and Maleness: A Critical View of Mixed Motive Doctrine in Title VII Sex Discrimination Cases, 1995 Utah L. Rev. 1029 (1995)
Contextualizing the Debate: How Feminist and Critical Race Scholarship Can Inform the Teaching of Employment Discrimination Law, 44 J. Legal Educ. 366 (1994)
The Use of Subclasses in Class Action Suits Under Title VII, 9 Indus. Rel. L.J. 116 (1987)
The State is Complicit, The State is Responsive: Producing Inequalities in the American Grey Zone, ZOGRIS Project – Final Seminar, Villa Clythia, Fréjus, France, June 4, 2015
Chair, Enterprise and Structure of the Value Chain in the Transnational Dimension, Employment Relations and Transformation of the Enterprise in the Global Economy , Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 19, 2015
Coordinator and Commentator, Young Scholars' Workshop in Labour Relations, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 18, 2015
It’s Complicated: Age, Gender, and Lifetime Discrimination Against Working Women, Law and Society Annual Meeting, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis School of Law, Minneapolis, MN, May 29, 2014 (presentation with Professor Malcolm Sargeant)
It’s Complicated: Age, Gender, and Lifetime Discrimination Against Working Women, The Center for Research on Gender in the Professions, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, May 27, 2014
Navigating Gender Equality Deficits in a Post-Egalitarian, Intersectional World of Changing Work: The Case of Women’s Poverty in Retirement, The Feminism and Legal Theory Project at 30: A Workshop on Labor and Employment, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, GA, April 26, 2014
Ruminations on a Half Century of Title VII: It’s Complicated, Fifty Years of Title VII: A Forum on Employment Discrimination, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA, April 19, 2014
Chair, Social Dialogue and Labour Standards, Labour and Social Rights: An Evolving Scenario, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 18, 2014
Anti-Discrimination Law in Common Law Countries: The U.S. and the U.K., and the Insights of Social Science, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 17, 2014
Coordinator and Commentator, Young Scholars' Workshop in Labour Relations, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 17, 2014
Navigating in a Snowstorm: Labor Market Regulation, the Changing Nature of Work, and the Gray Zone in the United States, ZOGRIS Project – Second Colloquium: Employment Standards and Work Situations Meet (Labor) Market Regulations and Policies – Globalization and the View from the North and South, Université de Paris - Dauphine, Paris, France, January 16, 2014
Labor and Employment Issues Associated with the Affordable Care Act: An Academic Perspective, CLE: The Effects of the Affordable Care Act for Businesses, Consumers, and the Economy, San Diego County Bar Association, New Lawyer Division and Labor & Employment Law Section, SDCBA Conference Center, San Diego, CA, November 7, 2013
It’s Complicated: Age, Gender, and Lifetime Discrimination Against Working Women – the U.S. and the U.K. as Examples (paper co-authored with Malcolm Sargeant), Eighth Annual Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law, Las Vegas, NV, September 27, 2013
Employment Discrimination Law in Common Law Countries: The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Insights of Social Science, San Diego World Affairs Council, North County Chapter, The Remington Club, Rancho Bernardo, CA, June 6, 2013
Anti-Discrimination Law in Common Law Countries: The U.S. and Great Britain and the Insights of Social Science, Faculty of Jurisprudence, Doctoral Program in Labour Law, University of Milan, Milan, Italy, March 22, 2013
Coordinator and Commentator, Young Scholars' Workshop in Labour Relations, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 19, 2013
Discussant, Transnational Governance of Labour Relations, The Transnational Dimension of Labour Relations: A New Order in the Making?, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 19, 2013
Diverging Doctrine, Converging Outcomes: Evaluating Age Discrimination Law in the United Kingdom and the United States, Seventh Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, September 14, 2012
Diverging Doctrine, Converging Outcomes: Compulsory Retirement in the United Kingdom and the United States, International Labour and Employment Relations Association - 16th World Congress, Philadelphia, PA, July 5, 2012 (presentation with Malcolm Sargeant)
At-Will Employment: A Default Rule with Many Exceptions, Essential US Employment and Labor Law for the French Entrepreneur, French American Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA, April 18, 2012 (Available at http://www.tjsl.edu/news-media/2012/6396)
Coordinator and Commentator, Young Scholars’ Workshop in Labour Relations, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 22, 2012
North American Border Wars: The Role of Canadian and American Scholarship in U.S. Labor Law Reform Debates, Rules, Policies and Method: The Legacy of Marco Biagi in Labour Relations Today, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 19, 2012 (presentation with Professor Michael J. Zimmer)
Decent Work, Older Workers and the Recession – The American Experience, Labor and Employment Relations Association 64th Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Jan. 8, 2012
Mapping Uncertain Geography: Legal Regulation, Unauthorized Workers, Safe Work, and the Grey Zone in the United States, ZOGRIS Project Kick Off: Is There a Grey Area Between Comparable Labour Markets in the South and the North?, Université de Paris - Dauphine, Paris, France, Dec. 8, 2011
Senior Commentator, Sixth Annual Employment and Labor Law Young Scholars’ Forum, Seton Hall University School of Law, Newark, NJ, October 28-29, 2011
What International Law Can Tell Us about the Evolving US Law of Workplace Social Media Use, Challenges of Social Media in the Workplace, San Diego Labor and Employment Relations Association, Annual Meeting and Dinner, San Diego, CA, May 18, 2011
Increasing the Employment Rate of Older Workers: European Objectives and US Lessons, Europe 2020: Comparative Perspectives and Transnational Action, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 17, 2011 (presentation with Professor Malcolm Sargeant)
Deregulation, Safe Work, and Undocumented Workers in the New Economy: An Analysis of Novel Programming for America's Most Vulnerable, Middlesex University School of Business, London, United Kingdom, June 8, 2010
Decent Work in a Post-Recessionary World: Reconceptualizing Flexibility, Employment Protection, and the Regulatory Tools Used to Achieve Those Goals, Rethinking Corporate Governance: From Shareholder Value to Stakeholder Value, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, March 19, 2010
Learning From Troubled Times: Pursuing Equality Outside an Anti-Discrimination Law Frame By Rethinking the Promotion of Safe Work During the Bush Administration, Annual Jack Pemberton Lecture on Workplace Justice, University of San Francisco School of Law, Keynote delivered at the James R. Browning Courthouse, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, CA, March 4, 2010
Puzzling Evidence from a Troubled Time: Rethinking State Promotion of Safe Work during the Bush Administration, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, Jan. 9, 2010
What We Learn in Troubled Times: Lessons for Protecting Vulnerable Workers' Safety and Health in the New Economy, International Industrial Relations Association World Congress, Sydney, Australia, Aug. 2009
The Pedagogy of International and Comparative Workplace Law, Association of American Law Schools, Mid-Year Meeting, Workshop on Work Law, Long Beach, CA, June 2009
What We Learn in Troubled Times: Deregulation and Safe Work in the New Economy, Loyola University, New Orleans, School of Law, Faculty Colloquia Series, New Orleans, LA, April 2009
Youth Employment: Developments in Asia, Plenary panel chair and discussant, Labour Productivity, Investment in Human Capital and the Challenge of Youth Employment: Comparative Developments and Global Responses, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, Mar. 2009
Discrimination, Difference, and Diversity in Organizations, Panel Discussant, The Discoveries of the Discrimination Research Group, Stanford University Law School, Stanford, CA, Nov. 2008
What We Learn in Troubled Times: Lessons for Protecting Vulnerable Workers' Safety and Health in the New Economy, 2008 Colloquium on Labor and Employment Law Scholarship, University of San Diego, Oct. 24, 2008
Providing Voice to Invisible Workers in a Climate of Fear: Is a Capabilities Approach to Occupational Health and Safety Promotion Possible?, Workers Rights Protections in a New World of Work, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Modena, Italy, Mar. 2008
Fearing Minefields, Finding Goldfields: Teaching International and Comparative Workplace Law in China or Anywhere Else, The Global Workplace, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA, Feb. 2008
A National Report on Diversity Programming in the United States, International Forum: Diversity, Equality and Integration, Flemish Royal Academy of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium, Sept. 2007
Globalization and Interdisciplinary Workplace Trends, The Global Workplace: Learning from One Another, Marco Biagi Foundation, University of Modena, Italy, Mar. 2007
How Well Do Internal EEO Litigation Prevention Measures Advance the Traditional Goal of Anti-Discrimination Law?, Joint Program of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Employment Discrimination Sections, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, Jan. 2007
Judicial Deference in Employment Discrimination Law, Workshop on Judicial Deference, University of Colorado, Boulder, School of Law, Boulder, CO, Aug. 2006
Commentator, Robyn Stryker's The Politics of Social Science in Government Regulation of Equal Employment Opportunity, Social Scientific Perspectives on Employment Discrimination in Organizations Group (SSPEDO), Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, Feb. 2006
A Critical Look at Organizational Responses to and Remedies for Sex Discrimination, Social Scientific Perspectives on Employment Discrimination in Organizations Group (SSPEDO), Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, Nov. 2005
Remedies and Solutions for Sex Discrimination, Nag’s Heart Symposium, Lake Tahoe, CA, Oct. 2005
Author Meets Reader – Gender Myths v. Working Realities by Theresa M. Beiner, Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, Jun. 2005
From Bulletproofing the Workplace to Bulletproofing the World? Spreading US Anti-Discrimination Law and Legal Practice, Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, Jun. 2005
Work in Progress, Social Scientific Perspectives on Employment Discrimination in Organizations Group, Stanford University Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford CA, Mar. 2005
Personal Reflections in Five Acts, Lawyers Club of San Diego Symposium on “How I Became a Professor and How I Became a Judge: Real Stories of Careers in Law”, California Western School of Law, San Diego CA, Mar. 2005
Welcoming Remarks, Fifth Annual Women and the Law Conference: The Global Impact of Feminist Legal Theory, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego CA, Feb. 2005
Transnational Employment Law Practice and the Exporting of American Lawyering Styles to the Global Worksite, California Western School of Law Faculty Forum, San Diego, CA, Oct. 2004
