No Ordinary Joe: Joseph R. Grodin and His Influence on California's Law of the Workplace

Authors

Christopher David Ruiz Cameron

Abstract

When it comes to California law of the workplace, no one has proved more influential than Joseph R. Grodin. Much of that influence is due to Grodin's wide-ranging experience in that field and his opportunity to analyze and comment on employment and labor law from different perspectives. In a career spanning more than five decades, Joe Grodin has served as a union lawyer, law professor, arbitrator, founding member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Justice of the California Supreme Court, and law professor once more.

This Essay outlines the manner in which Joe Grodin impacted California employment and labor laws in those various roles. As a law professor and a member of the California Judiciary, Grodin has authored numerous influential law review articles and court opinions that continue to influence the law of the workplace today and will likely continue to impact those laws well into the future.

This Essay is organized in three parts. Part I recounts Joe Grodin's career and summarizes his judicial and scholarly output. Part II places that career in perspective by identifying his four most important contributions to the law of the workplace. Part III concludes by offering some predictions, based on Justice Grodin's own observations, about how this law will continue to develop in the new century.

Recommended Citation

Christopher David Ruiz Cameron, No Ordinary Joe: Joseph R. Grodin and His Influence on California's Law of the Workplace, 52 Hastings L.J. 253 (2001).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol52/iss2/1