Associate Professor of Law
Courses Taught
- Employment Law
- Contracts
- Labor Law
Links
Education
- AB, cum laude, Duke University
- JD, City University of New York School of Law
Background
Jonathan Harris writes and speaks on work law, contracts, and workforce development. His publications have appeared or are forthcoming in the Alabama Law Review, California Law Review Online, Northwestern University Law Review Online, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, and New York City Law Review, and have been cited by, inter alia, the Senate Banking Committee. Professor Harris is a recipient of a $15,000 grant through the University of California Irvine School of Law’s Student Loan Law Initiative. He is a fellow with the Student Borrower Protection Center and co-authored the Center’s 2022 groundbreaking report, Trapped at Work: How Big Business Uses Student Debt to Restrict Worker Mobility.
Professor Harris is the Secretary-Treasurer of the AALS Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law, as well as an executive committee member of the AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law. He previously taught in the Lawyering Program at NYU School of Law. Professor Harris clerked for Judge James E. Graves, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit while teaching at Mississippi College School of Law. He began his legal career as a Skadden Fellow, focusing on the intersections of employment and consumer law. Prior to that, he was a labor and community organizer.
Law Review Publications
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Consumer Law as Work Law (work in progress)
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Economic Duress in Employment Contracting, 42 Compar. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. __ (forthcoming 2022) (invited)
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The New Noncompete: Training Repayment Agreement Provisions as a Scheme to Retain Workers through Debt, 117 U. L. Rev. Of Note 1 (2022)
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Unconscionability in Contracting for Worker Training, 72 Ala. L. Rev. 723 (2021) (reviewed in JOTWELL by Miriam A. Cherry)
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Is There a Right to Job Quality? Reenvisioning Workforce Development , 11 Calif. L. Rev. Online 339 (2020) (with Livia Lam)
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Worker Unity and the Law: A Comparative Analysis of the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Hope for the NLRA’s Future, 13 N.Y.C. L. Rev. 107 (2009) (winner, Burton Award for Distinguished Writing in a Student Note)
Reports
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Trapped at Work: How Big Business Uses Student Debt to Restrict Worker Mobility, Student Borrower Prot. Ctr. (July 2022) (with Chris Hicks)
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Collecting Unpaid Wages & Enforcing Judgments in Maryland, Pub. Just. Ctr. (2012) (with Molly Theobald)
Agency Comments
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Comment Letter to CFPB on Employer-Driven Debt (Sept. 23, 2022)
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Comment Letter on Dec. 6-7, 2021 FTC & DOJ Workshop, "Making Competition Work: Promoting Competition in Labor Markets" (Dec. 19, 2021)
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Comment Letter to FTC on Contract Terms that May Harm Competition (Sept. 30, 2021)
Recent Media Mentions
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Newsy, The Why, Quick Quitting (Nov. 29, 2022) (television)
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Taryn Luna & Hannah Wiley, A Sexual Misconduct Settlement Could Threaten #MeToo Progress at California Capitol, L.A. Times (Oct. 23, 2022)
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Jacob Zinkula, Be Careful before “Quick Quitting” and Joining the Great Resignation. Your Employer May Hand You a Bill for Your Job Training., Business Insider (Oct. 19, 2022)
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KMOX, The Show, Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (Oct. 18, 2022) (radio)
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Diane Bartz, More U.S. Employers Charging Employees for Job Training if They Quit, Reuters (Oct. 17, 2022)
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USC Annenberg Media, ATVN News, Disneyland Wages (Oct. 11, 2022) (television)
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Sam Knight, More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude, Truthout (Sept. 19, 2022)
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Jillian Berman, ‘They are Looking for Other Ways to Keep Workers from Leaving Their Jobs’: Training Repayment Agreements are the Latest Corporate Battleground in a Tight Labor Market., MarketWatch (Sept. 1, 2022) (quoted in headline)
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Devin Leonard, ‘Free’ Job Training Can Cost a Fortune for Employees Who Quit, Bloomberg Markets (Aug. 11, 2022)
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Dave Jamieson, A PetSmart Dog Groomer Quit Her Job. They Billed Her Thousands of Dollars for Training., HuffPost (Aug. 4, 2022)
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Caitlin Harrington, Beware the Contract Clause Loading US Workers With Debt, Wired (Aug. 4, 2022)