Abstract

The Labor Law Group, established in the early 1950s, is a unique consortium of labor law professors, and usually a practitioner or two, devoted to improving labor and employment law teaching and scholarship. Its primary activities have been publication of course books and sponsorship of conferences on important new developments. All royalty income goes into a trust fund used solely for carrying on the Group's work. By luck more than by merit, I was invited to join the Group around 1969. Because I had practiced labor law for only a few years on the East Coast before entering law teaching in Kentucky and because I have never been a diligent reader of scholarly articles, the name Joseph Grodin was unfamiliar to me when, around 1971 or 1972, the late Professor Benjamin Aaron proposed him for membership in the Labor Law Group.

Realizing that most of us were from the east, south and mid-west, Ben, as I recall, explained that his nominee had recently entered law teaching fulltime at Hastings and, though still a young man, had already distinguished himself as a leading California practitioner. Ben most likely also noted his candidate's adjunct teaching experience, a few of his publications, and probably mentioned his doctorate from the London School of Economics. The potential value of this addition to the Group was immediately recognized, and we unanimously invited him into membership with a plea to Ben to persuade him to accept our invitation. About a year later the Group met in Denver. It was there I met Joe and Janet Grodin for the first time and discovered the broad range of their interests and accomplishments as well as their congenial personalities. In time, my wife got to meet them both and we developed a friendship that Ellie and I cherish.

The scope and intensity of Joseph Grodin's intellectual drive have resulted in his making important contributions to developments in a variety of areas of law. Because our relationship grew out of a shared interest in labor and employment law, this essay focuses on his work in one subcategory of that field—the law of public sector collective bargaining representation.

Document Type

Commentary

Publication Date

2015

7-15-2016

Notes/Citation Information

Alvin L. Goldman, Joseph Grodin's Contributions to Public Sector Collective Bargaining Law, 10 Cal. Legal Hist. 37 (2015).

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