Dean Sperino Publishes Article on Summary Judgments in Employment Discrimination Cases

Associate Dean Sandra Sperino has published an article on the McDonnell Douglas framework in the North Carolina Law Review. The McDonnell Douglas framework is the most important analytical structure in employment discrimination law. Scholars and judges have regularly criticized the three-part, burden-shifting test. Despite decades of criticism, a central feature of the framework remains unexamined—its second step is incompatible with the summary judgment standard. In employment discrimination cases, courts often grant summary judgment in the employer’s favor. Scholars have offered various accounts of why this happens, including docket pressures and published case law that focuses on grants of summary judgement.

Dean Sperino Cited in JOTWELL

Associate Dean Sandra Sperino‘s article, The Causation Canon, published last year in the Iowa Law Review, was cited in JOTWELL, a blog aimed at highlighting excellent legal scholarship. In JOTWELL, Joseph Seiner writes: “In The Causation Canon, Professor Sandra Sperino performs a superb analysis of the Supreme Court’s evolving analysis of causation standards. The piece carefully synthesizes the decisions in this area, identifying a new canon of statutory interpretation now used by the Court – coined by Professor Sperino as the ‘Causation Canon.'” To read the full entry, visit: https://worklaw.jotwell.com/the-supreme-courts-evolving-and-dubious-view-on-causation/…

Associate Dean Sperino Publishes New Edition of Federal Employment Discrimination Law Book

Associate Dean Sandra Sperino has published the 10th edition of her book, “Federal Law of Employment Discrimination in a Nutshell” this February. Dean Sperino’s book is designed to assist students—both law and undergraduate—to achieve a basic understanding of the complex area of federal employment discrimination law, and provide an up-to-date review for the practitioner. The focus is upon Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, national origin, sex, and religious discrimination), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act as applied to the workplace. The book addresses the method of proving…

Dean Sperino Cited in Eleventh Circuit Opinion

Associate Dean Sandra Sperino’s article, Rethinking Discrimination Law, 110 Mich. L. Rev. 69 (2011), was cited in a concurring opinion by Judge Newsom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The case is Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 88 4th 939 (2023). Judge Newsom advocates for the abolition of the McDonnell Douglas test, a burden-shifting framework courts use to analyze discrimination claims. Professor Sperino is an expert in McDonnell Douglas, writing numerous articles and a book on the topic. 

Dean Sperino Quoted in Bloomberg Law

Sandra Sperino, associate dean and Elwood L. Thomas Endowed Professor of Law, was quoted in Bloomberg Law about oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on a work discrimination case. Narrowing the issue leaves out biased employer decisions on topics like when and where employees work, which job functions they’re required to perform, and discipline that doesn’t immediately result in docked pay or other serious consequences, said Sandra Sperino, a discrimination law professor at the University of Missouri. But it also eliminates the need for the justices to define what’s the most minimal conduct that would cross the…

Faculty Spotlight — Meet Dean Sandra Sperino

A first generation undergraduate and law student, Sandra Sperino applied to law school not quite sure of what her life would look like as a lawyer, or where her career in the legal field would take her. Though Sperino, now an associate dean and Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor at Mizzou Law, spent a brief period working in journalism and public relations after college, she was looking to take on something more intellectual. “I was looking for an academic challenge,” Sperino said. “I just knew that law school was hard and rigorous and a good course of study. So,…

Associate Dean Sperino Provides Training to Federal Judges

Sandra Sperino, the associate dean for research and faculty development and the Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor at Mizzou Law serves as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center. The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. government. On Dec. 5, Professor Sperino gave a 90-minute presentation at the Phase II Orientation Seminar for U.S. District Judges in Washington D.C. She discussed cutting edge issues in discrimination law and the recently enacted Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. In late October, Dean Sperino conducted…