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…
Category: Prof. Sandra Sperino ⋅ Page 1
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…