S.J. Quinney College of Law

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Legal Education (1913-2013)

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Laura T. Kessler

Laura Kessler's Biography Photo

Professor of Law

Laura T. Kessler, professor of law, joined the faculty in the fall of 2001. Prior to joining the law faculty, Professor Kessler clerked for the Honorable Ronald L. Ellis in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, litigated class-action civil rights cases in Maryland, and served as a teaching fellow at Columbia Law School. Professor Kessler's main scholarly interest is inequality and families. Recent publications include The New Frontiers in Family Law, Community Parenting, Transgressive Caregiving, and other articles exploring the inadequacies of current law and legal theory in respecting minority families and care practices. Her work has been cited or reprinted in Supreme Court amicus briefs, law school casebooks, edited anthologies, and numerous law review articles.

Professor Kessler teaches family law, comparative and international family law, employment discrimination, gender and the law, and seminars on select topics in discrimination law.

Scholarship Highlights

Works in Progress

Transgressive Caregiving (monograph).

Book Chapters

New Frontiers in Family Law, in Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory (Martha Albertson Fineman ed., 2011)

Transgressive Caregiving, in Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations (Martha Albertson Fineman, Jack E. Jackson & Adam P. Romero eds., Ashgate 2009)

Is There Agency in Dependency? Expanding the Feminist Justifications for Restructuring Wage Work, in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus (Martha Fineman & Terence Dougherty eds., Cornell Univ. Press 2005)

Articles

Feminism for Everyone, 34 Seattle U. L. Rev. 679 (2011)

New Frontiers in Family Law: Introduction, 2009 Utah L. Rev. 275, 358; 11 J.L. & Fam. Stud. 227 (2009)

Getting Class, 56 Buff. L. Rev. 915 (2008)

Community Parenting, 24 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol'y 47 (2007)

Transgressive Caregiving, 33 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1 (2005)

PPI, Patriarchy, and the Schizophrenic View of Women: A Feminist Analysis of Welfare Reform in Maryland, 6 Md. J. Contemp. Legal Issues 317 (1995)

Selected Talks and Presentations

The Story of Stump v. Sparkman: Writing Race and Class out of Reproductive Choice in America, 14th Annual Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities Conference, UNLV Law School (Mar. 2011)

Where is the State in Work-Family?, Panel on Reconstructing Superwoman: Care and Market Work from a Non-Binary Perspective, Motherhood Symposium, University of Denver Sturm College of Law (Mar. 2010)

Neofeminism and Family Law, Workshop on Neofeminism, Third Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference, University of Baltimore School of Law (Mar. 2010)

Resuscitating Economic Harm in Discrimination Theory, LatCrit XIV Symposium, Panel on Reconnecting Political and Civil Rights with Economic Justice, Washington College of Law, American University (Oct. 2009)

New Frontiers in Family Law, Panel on Legalities of Sexualities, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado (May 2009)

New Frontiers in Family Law, Second Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference, Panel on Applying Feminist Legal Theory to Family Law, University of Baltimore School of Law (Mar. 2009)

New Frontiers in Family Law, Feminism and Legal Theory Project 25th Anniversary Celebration, Emory Law School (Nov. 2008)

The Politics of Care, Symposium, Working from the World Up: Equality's Future, University of Wisconsin Law School (Mar. 2008)

Community Parenting, Emory Law School (Nov. 2007)

Transgressive Caregivers: The Case for Legalizing Multiple Parenthood, Legal Theory Workshop, University of Maryland School of Law (Sept. 2007)

Resuscitating Economic Harm in Discrimination Theory, Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Workshop on Understanding Class and Caste within a World of Global Inequalities, Emory Law School (May 2007)

Resuscitating Economic Harm in Discrimination Theory, ClassCrits Workshop II, Buffalo Law School (May 2007)

How a Focus on Class Can Build On and Add to Feminist Legal Theory Projects, Taking an Intersectional Approach, ClassCrits Workshop I, Buffalo Law School (Jan. 2007)

Paid Family Leave in American Law Schools: Preliminary Findings and Open Questions, Keynote Address, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Section on Women in Legal Education Breakfast, Washington, D.C. (Jan. 2007)

The Transformative Potential of Multiple Parenting, by invitation of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy at Law and Society Annual Meeting, Following Marriage Panel, Baltimore, Maryland (July 2006)

Care as Politics, Association for Research on Mothering, Caregiving and Carework: Theory and Practice Conference, York University, Toronto, Canada (May 2006)

Keeping Discrimination Theory Front and Center in the Discourse over Work and Family Conflict, Symposium, Balancing Career and Family: A Work/Life Symposium, Pepperdine Law School (Apr. 2006)

Paid Family Leave in American Law Schools: Preliminary Findings and Open Questions, Panel on New Data and Research on the Workplace, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada (June 2005) 

Transgressive Caregiving, Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Workshop on Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Convergences and Departures, Emory Law School (Apr. 2005) 

Caught Between the Waves: Navigating the Post-Second Wave Pre-Postfeminist Position, Panel on Coming of Age in the 1990s, Feminism and Legal Theory Project 20th Summer Celebration, University of Wisconsin Law School (June 2003)

Transgressive Caregiving, Conference, Subversive Legacies: Constructing the Future, University of Texas Law School (Nov. 2002) 

Work-Family Conflict in the United States: Legal Developments, Challenges, and Open Questions, XII International Congress on Family Law, Havana, Cuba (Sept. 2002)

Wage Replacement for Workers Taking Family Leave: Exploring Unemployment Insurance as a Solution, 2001-2002 Downtown CLE Series, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (Apr. 2002) 

Conferences and Workshops

Co-Organizer (with Martha Ertman), New Frontiers in Family Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (Feb. 2008).

Organizer and Chair, Gender & Class: Voices from the Collective, Association of American Law Schools, Women in Legal Education Section, New York, NY (Jan. 2008). Program available at: http://www.law.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/GenderandClass.pdf

Discussant, Panel on Cultural and Legal Cliteracy, Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Berlin, Germany (July 2007)

Chair, Atypical Workers in a Different Key: Young, Old, Female, and the Law of Work, Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Berlin, Germany (July 2007)

Organizer, Presenter, and Chair, Children in the Post-Nuclear Family, 30th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, University of Padua, Italy (June 2007)

Chair, Roundtable-Building New Foundations for Worker Rights: Brainstorming a Strategy to Rebuild Worker Rights, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland (July 2006)

Chair and Discussant, Building New Foundations for Worker Rights: Constructing Law, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland (July 2006)

Co-Organizer, Moderator, and Discussant, Decisions and Families Conference, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law (Sept. 2005)

Member, Cognitive Bias Working Group, Program on Gender, Work, and Family, American University, Washington College of Law (2002-2003)

Organizer, Presenter, and Chair, Gender, Work, and Caretaking, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada (May 2002)

View CV for full list

Honors & Awards

Order of the Coif

University of Utah Faculty Fellowship (2007-2008)

University of Utah Sexuality and Gender Studies Research Award (2007-2008)

Visiting Scholar, Feminism & Legal Theory Project, Emory Law School, November 2007

Law and Society Association Summer Institute (2001)

Law and Society Association Graduate Student Workshop (1999)

Herman N. Finkelstein Research Fellowship, Columbia Law School (1997-1998)

Professional Affiliations

Association of American Law Schools, sections on:

Family and Juvenile Law

Labor and Employment Law

Women in Legal Education (officer)

Law and Society Association

Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Emory Law School

Class Crits Working Group, Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy, Buffalo Law School

Society of American Law Teachers

American Bar Association