Associate Dean Sperino Quoted in Forbes

Sandra Sperino, associate dean for research and faculty development, was quoted last week in Forbes on a story about Supreme Court expansion of employer risk of discrimination. To read her quotes and the full story, visit: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelletravis/2024/04/18/supreme-court-expands-employer-risk-of-discrimination-claims/?sh=22ffd5b53e79

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. 

Mizzou Law Announces New Faculty Hires for Fall 2022

Officials at the University of Missouri School of Law are kicking off the 150th anniversary of the school by announcing two exciting new faculty hires joining the ranks of the nationally renowned faculty scholars and teachers at Mizzou Law. Sandra Sperino, a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and Rachel Wechsler, a research fellow at the New York University School of Law, will be joining the faculty at Mizzou Law in time to begin teaching classes in the Fall 2022 semester. “We are so excited to welcome these accomplished legal experts to our faculty,” said Lyrissa Lidsky,…