California Western School of Law Professor Co-Hosts Highly Successful COSELL

Oct 01 2024
COSELL attendees pose for a group photo at the reception prior to the gala and awards ceremony. CWSL's Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp and USD's Professor Orly Lobel sit in the center of the front row in all black and all blue respectively.
COSELL attendees pose for a group photo at the reception prior to the gala and awards ceremony. CWSL's Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp and USD's Professor Orly Lobel sit in the center of the front row in all black and all blue respectively.

SAN DIEGO (October 2, 2024) - California Western School of Law (CWSL)’s Dean Steven R. Smith Professor of Law, Susan Bisom-Rapp co-hosted the Nineteenth Annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL) with USD Law Professor Orly Lobel on September 13-14. The event was sponsored in part by CWSL’s Castetter Endowed Studies Fund.

The annual colloquium is a works-in-progress gathering of Work Law scholars from around the US and Canada. COSELL is held in a different part of the country and hosted by different law schools each year. This year’s event, which took place on the USD and CWSL campuses, featured over 60 speakers, 18 panels, two breakfasts, a luncheon, a wine and appetizer reception, and a gala dinner with an awards presentation.

According to Professor Bisom-Rapp, “This annual conference series creates a supportive environment – a safe space – for labor and employment law scholars to try out new ideas and receive feedback on them. COSELL embodies one of the nicest aspects of being a Work Law scholar – the friendship and comradery of those who labor in the field.”

Professor Bisom-Rapp was busy during the conference, delivering welcoming remarks, moderating two panels, and, with her co-author Canadian Professor Urwana Coiquaud (HEC Montreal), presenting her own work-in-progress on a third panel. She was assisted by CWSL’s Clara Shortridge Foltz Professor of Law Jessica Fink, who moderated a panel and presented her own work-in-progress. Dean Sean Scott helped open the colloquium by delivering warm words of welcome.

Additionally, Professor Bisom-Rapp presented the 2024 Michael J. Zimmer Award to Associate Professor of Law Daiquiri Steele (University of Alabama). The Zimmer award recognizes “a rising scholar who values workplace justice and community, and who has made significant contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship.”  Professor Steele’s published work explores the prevalence of workplace retaliation, especially in the context of employee whistleblowing, and examines how the law falls short in deterring illegal employer conduct against those who report misconduct.  

Professor Bisom-Rapp said of Steele, “It was a pleasure to present the Zimmer award to Professor Steele, whose commitment to social justice, fairness, and equal access in employment is clear, and who has a pragmatic view of what it takes to make decent work a reality. She is already a leader in our field.”

Professor Deborah Widiss (Indiana University) received the 2024 Paul Steven Miller Award for her pathbreaking comparative law work in family leave and pregnancy accommodation, as well as widely cited scholarship in gender stereotyping, intimate liberties, anti-discrimination law, and statutory interpretation. The Miller Award is presented annually to a senior scholar who has made "outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment scholarship.”

Professor Bisom-Rapp notes, “Professor Widiss has produced a brilliant body of work that is having a tremendous impact on US law and policy.” Professor Bisom-Rapp received the Miller Award in 2019 during the COSELL hosted by the University of Nevada Las Vegas.