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Understanding Employment Law
October 14, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
All in 254 pages, by three thoughtful experts: Richard Bales (Northern Kentucky University), Jeffrey M. Hirsch (University of Tennessee), and Paul M. Secunda (University of Mississippi).
Bales, Hirsch, Secunda, Understanding Employment Law (LexisNexis 2007).
Destined to become a popular resource for law students and lawyers alike, the book strikes a nice balance between being comprehensive and selective. It takes on the impossible task of summarizing a complex web (or checkerboard, if you like) of common law, statutory, and constitutional provisions.
The book is written in a clear and uniform style, with good examples taken from court cases. The writing is objective, and does not carry the personal opinions of the authors. The organization is clear, with useful headings and subheadings.
These authors clearly know what they are talking about. They raise the key legal issues, clearly separate the black letter from the gray areas, give both sides of current controversies, and provide useful citations for further reading.
For me, the main flaw is that some of it is organized in historical order - the way one might teach a course in law school. This can create analytical difficulties. For example, employer torts are under the heading of "Tort Erosions of Employment at Will" even though employment-at-will is a contracts doctrine. And Garcetti v. Ceballos (the most recent free speech case) is presented at the end of the free speech section even though it probably is now a threshold issue.
If I were still teaching employment law, I would strongly recommend this book to my students. And I recommend it to any lawyer who wants to get a reliable overview of the legal tangle we call employment law.
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