Michael C. Duff is Professor of Law at the University of Wyoming College of Law. Professor Duff worked as a blue collar worker and served as a union shop steward and activist in the airline industry for twelve years before developing an interest in a legal career. After receiving a philosophy degree summa cum laude from the West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 1991, he was admitted to the Harvard Law School in 1992. While at HLS, Professor Duff clerked for two years with the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents. He then worked for a union-side labor and employment law firm in Maine following his graduation from HLS in 1995. In 1997, Professor Duff embarked on a career as a field attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, where he divided nine years between that agency’s Philadelphia and Minneapolis regional offices. While employed with the NLRB, Professor Duff also served as a union official and grievance counsel for a national union representing NLRB attorneys and field examiners. Professor Duff entered academia in 2006, at the University Wyoming, and was tenured and promoted to full Professor there in July 2012. At the Sturm College of Law he will be teaching Labor Law and Administrative Law.

Articles

The Cloak (of Authority) That Will Not Fit: The 6th Circuit Upholds the NLRB’s New Pre-Recognition Negotiation Rule (Forthcoming)

What Brady v. N.F.L. Teaches about the Devolution of Labor Law, 52 Washburn Law Journal ____ (forthcoming spring 2013).

New Nip in the Bud: Does the Obama Board’s Preemptive Strike Doctrine Enhance Tactical Employment Law Strategies?, 16 Employment Rights and Employment Policy Journal 143 (2012).

Of Courage, Tumult, and the Smash Mouth Truth: A Union Side Apologia, 15 Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal 521 (2011).

Union Salts as Administrative Private Attorneys General, 32 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 1 (2011).

The Debt Ceiling Debate and the Constitution: A Call for Caution, JURIST- Forum, July 16, 2011, (with Benjamin Davis, Craig Jackson, and Leland Ware).

Terms Matter: Reflections on the Wyoming Debate Over the Teacher’s “Union” and Teacher “Tenure”, 34 Wyoming Lawyer 16 (April 2011).

Labor Injunctions in Bankruptcy: The Norris-LaGuardia Firewall, 2009 Michigan State Law Review 669 (2009).

Embracing Paradox: Three Problems the NLRB Must Confront to Resist Further Erosion of Labor Rights in the Expanding Immigrant Workplace, 30 Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 133 (2009).

Days without Immigrants: Analysis and Implications of the Treatment of Immigration Rallies under the National Labor Relations Act, 85 Denver University Law Review 93 (2007).

Books
Workers Compensation, Carolina Academic Press (forthcoming).

Presentations

Panelist, “The Landscape of Private Sector Labor Law in the 21st Century”, at “Employment and Labor Law in the 21st Century – Changes in the Arenas of Conflict”, Washburn University School of Law’s Business and Transactional Law Center, Topeka, Kansas, February 28, 2013.

Panelist, “The Role of Law in Creating the Good Employer,” United Association of Labor Education Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 23, 2012.

Panelist, “Exploring How Access to Education and Safe, Affordable Energy Contribute to Creating a More Just Workplace,” Working Class Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Illinois-Chicago, June 25, 2011.

Presenter, “Collective Bargaining: What It Is; What It Isn’t; Why It Matters,” Wyoming Continuing Legal Education Session, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, April 16, 2011.

Invited Presenter, “Author Meets Reader: Discussing Julius Getman’s Restoring the Power of Unions,” Section on Labor Relations and Employment, Association of
American Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, January 8, 2011.

Presenter, “Canaries in the Coal Mine: The Tactical Use of the National Labor Relations Act to Aid in the Protection of Workers Exposed to Pollutants,” Shepard Symposium on Social Justice, April 8, 2010.

Panelist, “Contested Case Procedures Under the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act,” Annual Meeting of the Wyoming Association of County Officials, Laramie, WY, September 22, 2009.

Presenter, “University of Wyoming Social Justice Research Center and My Personal Commitment to Issues of Social Justice,” Martin Luther King Jr. Day, March and Days of Dialogue, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, January 19, 2009.

Presenter, “Working in the Federal and Wyoming Legal Systems,” Casper, WY, Wyoming Continuing Education Seminar, July 17, 2008.

Presenter, “Federal Sector Equal Employment Opportunity Law Complaint Procedures Pursuant to 29 C.F.R. 1614,” National Labor Relations Board Union Convention, Miami, FL, October 17, 2003.

Presenter, “The State of ‘Refusal to Hire’ Law in the Wake of the NLRB’s Decision in FES,” International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Regional Meeting, Pomona, NJ, January 16, 2003.

Presenter, “Traps for the Unwary in National Labor Relations Board Regional Office Procedures,” Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, Union Leadership Academy, April 2, 2001.