Laura Cooper

  • Professor of Law Emeritus

Degrees

  • University of Southern California, B.A.
  • Indiana University at Bloomington, J.D.

Expertise

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Civil Procedure
  • Conflicts
  • Employment Law
  • Labor & Employment Law
  • Labor Arbitration

Professor Laura J. Cooper is a distinguished scholar in the fields of labor law and workplace dispute resolution. She teaches courses in labor law, labor arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and conflict of laws and is known for innovations in technology and simulation-based pedagogy. She is the creator of a Capstone Course in Labor and Employment Law in which students play the role of lawyers in a semester-long complex simulation integrating the diverse areas of labor and employment law with practice skills and issues of ethics and professionalism. For three terms, she has also taught at Uppsala University in Sweden and is returning to teach there in 2013. She was the 2009 Stanley V. Kinyon Tenured Teacher of the Year.

Professor Cooper received her B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Southern California and her J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, which inducted her into its Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2002 for "distinction through personal achievements and dedication to the highest standards of the profession." In law school, she was elected to Order of the Coif and served as Executive Editor of the Indiana Law Journal. She clerked for Judge John S. Hastings of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals before joining the University of Minnesota faculty where she became the first woman ever to receive tenure at the Law School.

In 1987-88 she was the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law and in 2003 she was appointed to her present endowed chair. She briefly worked as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and currently serves as a labor mediator and arbitrator. She is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and has served on its Board of Governors and chaired its legal affairs and auditing committees. In 2006, she was elected as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, in recognition of distinguished leadership in the field. In 2008, she was the honoree at the Law Day Dinner of the Fund for the Legal Aid Society in recognition of her career contributions promoting access to civil legal representation for low income persons, including 68 years of service on four boards of directors for legal services programs.

She is the co-author or co-editor of six books on labor law and workplace dispute resolution and has written historical, analytical and empirical articles in welfare law, conflicts of law, labor law, legal pedagogy and workplace dispute resolution. She has received grants for research in labor law and labor arbitration from the American Bar Foundation, the Fund for Labor Relations Studies and the Research and Education Fund of the National Academy of Arbitrators.

Professor Cooper is the faculty Co-Editor of the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law. From 2001-2005 she was the Chair of the Labor Law Group, an international association of labor and employment law scholars. She has chaired the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools and the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution.

Professor Cooper worked with the Minnesota Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on studies of gender fairness in the courts. She spent five years as chair of a University committee responsible for evaluating and recommending amendments to the University's employee grievance policy and spent a decade in implementation of a consent decree prohibiting discrimination against University women faculty. Her work was recognized in 2010 by the University of Minnesota Women's Faculty Cabinet that granted her its Phoenix Award for "pioneering and persevering work toward achieving the promise of equality of women in higher education and beyond." In 2012 she received the Mullen-Spector-Truax award from the University of Minnesota Women's Center for "outstanding contributions to women's leadership development."

Books

ADR in the Workplace (West Academic Publishing, 4th ed., 2020)
(with
Dennis R. Nolan
,
Richard A. Bales
,
Lise Gelernter
and
Michael Z. Green
)
More Than We Have Ever Known About Discipline and Discharge in Labor Arbitration: An Empirical Study (Vandeplas Publishing, 2015)
(with
Mario F. Bognanno
ADR in the Workplace (West Academic Publishing, 3d ed., 2014)
(with
Dennis R. Nolan
,
Richard A. Bales
ADR in the Workplace (West Group, 1st ed., 2000; Thomson West, 2d ed., 2005)
(with
Dennis R. Nolan
and
Richard A. Bales
)
Labor Law Stories (Foundation Press, 2005) (co-editor)
(with
Catherine L. Fisk
)
Workplace ADR Simulations and Teacher's Guide (West Group, 1st ed., 2000; Thomson West, 2d ed., 2005)
(with
Carolyn Chalmers
)
Labor Arbitration: A Coursebook (West Publishing Company, 1994)
(with
Dennis R. Nolan
)

Journal Articles

What's the Relationship Between Labor Arbitrators' Backgrounds and Outcomes of Discipline and Discharge Awards? An Empirical Analysis, 31 ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law 433 (2016)
(with
and
Mario F. Bognanno
)
The Conventional Wisdom of Discharge Arbitration Outcomes and Remedies: Fact or Fiction, 16 Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution 153 (2014)
(with
Mario F. Bognanno
,
Jonathan E. Booth
,
Thomas J. Norman
The Capstone Course in Labor and Employment Law: A Comprehensive Immersion Simulation Integrating Law, Lawyering Skills, and Professionalism, 58 Saint Louis University Law Journal 99 (2013)
Tribute to Professor Calvin William Sharpe, 64 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1 (2013)
(with
Jonathan L. Entin
,
Douglas E. Ray
,
Robert N. Strassfeld
and
Jr. Thompson
)
Discipline and Discharge of Public-Sector Employees: An Empirical Study of Arbitration Awards, 27 ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law 195 (2012)
Employment Arbitration 2011: A Realist's View, 87 Indiana Law Journal 317 (2012)
An Experiment in Legal Education: Simulating ADR Processes in the Capstone Course on Labor and Employment Law, 66 Dispute Resolution Journal 1 (2011)
Letting the Puppets Speak: Employee Voice in the Legislative History of the Wagner Act, 94 Marquette Law Review 837 (2011)
Controlling the Arbitration Hearing: Introduction, Proceedings of the Sixty-First Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Arbitrators 285 (Patrick Halter & Paul D. Staudohar, eds., BNA, 2009)
How and Why Labor Arbitrators Decide Discipline and Discharge Cases: An Empirical Examination, Proceedings of the Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Arbitrators 420 (Stephen E. Befort & Patrick Halter, eds., BNA, 2008)
(with
Mario Bognanno
Privatizing Labor Law: Neutrality/Card Check Agreements and the Role of the Arbitrator, 83 Indiana Law Journal 1589 (2008) (The William R. Stewart Lecture)
Symposium Foreword: The Low-Wage Worker: Legal Rights - Legal Realities, 92 Minnesota Law Review 1289 (2008)
(with
Bryan M. Seiler
and
Catherine L. Fisk
)
The Process of Process: The Historical Development of Procedure in Labor Arbitration, Proceedings of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Arbitrators 99 (Paul F. Gerhart & Stephen F. Befort, eds., BNA, 2006)
Tribute to Clyde Summers, 9 Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal 521 (2005)
Researching Labor Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment, Employee Advocate: A Publication of the National Employment Lawyers Association 67 (2004); also available at LLRX.com (significantly revised version of the bibliography published in 91 Law Library Journal 367 (1999)
(with
Suzanne Thorpe
)
Teaching ADR in the Workplace Once and Again: A Pedagogical History, 53 Journal of Legal Education 1 (2003)
Alternative Resolution of Employment Discrimination Claims: American and Australian Experiences: Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting, Association of American Law Schools Section on Employment Discrimination Law, 5 Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal 603 (2001)
(with
Rosemary Hunter
,
Sara Adler
and
Carole Petersen
)
Researching Labor Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment, 91 Law Library Journal 367 (1999)
(with
Suzanne Thorpe
)
Harry Shulman: Deciding Women's Grievances in Wartime, Proceedings of the Forty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Arbitrators (Gladys W. Gruenberg, ed., BNA, 1994)
The Illegality of Bad Grammar, 6 Constitutional Commentary 5 (1989), revised version in 2 Scribes Journal of Legal Writing 159 (1991)
Discovery in Labor Arbitration, 72 Minnesota Law Review 1281 (1988)
A Research Guide to the Law of Private Sector Labor-Management Relations, 79 Law Library Journal 387 (1987)
Statutes of Limitations in Minnesota Choice of Law: The Problematic Return of the Substance-Procedure Distinction, 71 Minnesota Law Review 363 (1986)
Steve Block: A Teacher to Us All, 69 Minnesota Law Review 724 (1985)
Authorization Cards and Union Representation Election Outcome: An Empirical Assessment of the Assumption Underlying the Supreme Court's Gissel Decision, 79 Northwestern University Law Review 87 (1984)
Goldberg's Forgotten Footnote: Is There a Due Process Right to a Hearing Prior to the Termination of Welfare Benefits When the Only Issue Raised Is a Question of Law?, 64 Minnesota Law Review 1107 (1980)
In Memoriam: J. Morris Clark, 63 Minnesota Law Review 761 (1979)
Voir Dire in Federal Criminal Trials: Protecting the Defendant's Right to an Impartial Jury, 48 Indiana Law Journal 269 (1973) (note)

Book Chapters

Researching Labor Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment, appendix in Laura J. Cooper, Dennis R. Nolan & Richard A. Bales, ADR in the Workplace (West Group, 2000; Thomson/West, 2d ed., 2005), and in Laura J. Cooper, Dennis R. Nolan, Richard A. Bales & Stephen F. Befort, ADR in the Workplace (West Academic Publishing, 3d ed., 2014) ((significantly revised version of the bibliography published in 91 Law Library Journal 367 (1999)
(with
Suzanne Thorpe
)
The Enduring Power of Collective Rights, in Labor Law Stories 1 (Laura J. Cooper & Catherine L. Fisk, eds., Foundation Press, 2005)
(with
Catherine L. Fisk
)
The Story of NLRB v. Gissel Packing: The Practical Limits of Paternalism, in Labor Law Stories 191 (Laura J. Cooper & Catherine L. Fisk, eds., Foundation Press, 2005)
(with
Dennis R. Nolan
)
Civil Procedure: Exercises: Collaborative Creation of Flow Charts, in Teaching the Law School Curriculum 37 (Steven Friedland & Gerald F. Hess, eds., Carolina Academic Press, 2004)

Other Publications

Interview with Laura J. Cooper, J. Stewart & Mario Thomas McClendon Professor in Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution, University of Minnesota Law School (University of Minnesota Law School, 2017) (Interviewed February 1, 2017)
(with
Interview with Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Rosalie E. Wahl: Interviewed by Laura Cooper, Professor, University of Minnesota Law School (Minnesota Historical Society, 2000) (Interviewed August 17, 1994) (Transcript edited and annotated with Stacy Doepner-Hove, executive director, Minnesota Women Lawyers)

Multimedia

Recognitional Picketing I (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, 1999- ) (CALI lessons; Labor law)
(with
Elaine Kumpala
)
Recognitional Picketing II (Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, 1999- ) (CALI lessons; Labor law)
(with
Elaine Kumpala
)
Recognitional Picketing: National Labor Relations Act, 8(b)(7) (Foundation Press, 1984) (PowerPoint Slides for Conflicts distributed by Thomson/West and PowerPoint Slides for Labor Law)
(with
Elaine Kumpala
)