The University of Texas at Austin   School of Law

Education

• LLM Harvard
• LLB Harvard
• BA City College of New York

Areas of Specialty

• Labor Law
• Literature and the Law

Professor Getman is a preeminent scholar in the field of labor law, where he pioneered empirical studies and continues to do extensive field work. He came to Texas in 1986 from Yale Law School, where he was the William K. Townsend Professor of Law. He has also taught at Stanford Law School, University of Chicago Law School, and Georgetown University Law Center.

His most recent book, Restoring the Power of Unions: It Takes a Movement, was published in 2010 by Yale University Press. A paperback edition was released in November 2012. He is also author of The Betrayal of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics and Permanent Replacements (Cornell, 1998) and In the Company of Scholars: The Struggle for the Soul of Higher Education (Texas, 1992); and co-author of both Union Representation Elections: Law and Reality (Russell Sage Foundation, 1976) and Labor Relations: The Basic Processes, Law and Practice (Foundation, 1988). He edited a book of essays in 2004 with former Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (a faculty member at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT), The Future of Labor Unions: Organized Labor in the 21st Century. He is a former President of the American Association of University Professors.

In 2007, Professor Getman's first novel, Strike!, was published by Plainview Press.

Recent Publications

• Winning the FLSA Battle: How Corporations Use Arbitration Clauses to Avoid Judges, Juries, Plaintiffs, and Laws [Symposium: Worlds of Work Employment Dispute Resolution Systems Across the Globe], 86 St. John's Law Review 447 (2012) (with Dan Getman).
• Unions Make Us Strong, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, November/ December 2011 at 1.
• A Fairer Fight: Proposed NLRB Rules for Union Elections aren't Radical, They're Sensible and Should be Adopted, Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2011 at A13.

Full list of publications…

Recent Activities

• Walmart and Unions

  October 9, 2012 – November 28, 2012

  Quoted in articles about Walmart and unions in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and Business Week.

• "Arbeitsrecht und Beschaftigung in den USA" ("Labour and Employment in the U.S.")

  October 25, 2012

  Passau University Law School, Munich, Germany

  Provided opening address at annual German conference on U.S. labor law.

• Public Affairs forum

  September 10, 2012

  First Unitarian Universalist Church, Austin, TX

  Spoke about book Restoring the Power of Unions at the first Public Affairs forum of the year at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, Austin. The talk was videotaped for later broadcast on ChannelAustin TV (Public Access Community Television) Channel 10.

Full activities list…