Areas of Specialization
Employment Discrimination; Employment Law; Disability Law; Labor Law; Contracts
Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Professor Porter joined the faculty in 2024, where she teaches employment discrimination, employment law, disability law, labor law, and contracts. A nationally-known expert in employment discrimination and disability law, Professor Porter is the author or co-author of five books and 50 law review articles and essays. Her most recent book, The Workplace Reimagined: Accommodating Our Bodies and Our Lives, was published by Cambridge University Press.
Before joining William & Mary, Porter was a Professor of Law and Director of the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also was a Distinguished University Professor, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Toledo College of Law. She began her academic career at Saint Louis University School of Law and was a visiting professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the University of Iowa College of Law, and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
Professor Porter earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. After law school, Professor Porter was in-house counsel for a manufacturing company and practiced employment law in a large law firm in Detroit. She also clerked for the Honorable James L. Ryan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Professor Porter is on the executive committee of the Labor Law Group, an invitation-only organization of law professors dedicated to producing quality scholarship and teaching materials on labor and employment law. In 2022, Porter was elected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; in 2021, she was elected as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers; and in 2020, she was the recipient of the Paul Steven Miller Memorial Award for “outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship.
Scholarly Publications
Books
- The Workplace Reimagined: Accomodating Our Bodies and Our Lives (Cambridge Univ. Press 2023).
- Employment Discrimination Law: Cases and Materials on Equality in the Workplace ( 2021) (West Academic, 10th Edition) with Maria L. Ontiveros, Roberto L. Corrada, Michael Selmi, and Marcia McCormick.).
- ABA-BNA Employment Discrimination Treatise ( 2020) (6th Ed. 2020) (7th Ed. 2023).
- Feminist Judgements: Rewritten Employment Discrimination Opinions (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020) (with Ann McGinley (UNLV)).
- Disability Law, Cases and Materials (West Academic 2017) (2nd Ed. 2021), with Stephen Befort (Minnesota).
Articles and Book Chapters
- Working through the Supreme Court's 2021 Term, 26 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 145 (2023). Online.
- #MeToo and the Process That's Due: Sexual Misconduct Where We Live, Work, and Learn, 2022 U. Ill. L. Rev. 663 (2022). Online.
- Disability Diversity and Identity Capitalism, 56 New England L. Rev. 153 (2022). Online.
- Disclaiming Disability, 55 UC Davis L. Rev. 1829 (2021). Online.
- Working While Mothering during the Pandemic and beyond, 78 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. Online 1 (2021). Online.
- Accommodating Pregnancy Five Years after Young v. UPS: Where We Are & Where We Should Go, 14 St. Louis J. Health L. & Pol'y 73 (2020). Online.
- Adverse Employment Actions in Failure-to-Accommodate Claims: Much Ado about Nothing, 95 NYU L. Rev. Online 1 (2020). Online.
- Feminist Perspectives on Bostock v. Clayton County, 53 (2020) (with Catherine Jean PamelaArchibald). Online.
- Feminist Perspectives on Bostock v. Clayton County, 53 Conn. L. Rev. Online 1 (2020) (coauthored). Online.
- Relationships and Retaliation in the #MeToo Era, 72 Fla. L. Rev. 797 (2020). Online.
- A New Look at the ADA's Undue Hardship Defense, 84 Missouri L. Rev. 121 (2019). Online.
- Disabling ADA Retaliation Claims, 19 Nevada L. J. 823 (2019). Online.
- Explaining Not Disabled Cases Ten Years after the ADAAA: A Story of Ignorance, Incompetence, and Possibly Animus, 26 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol'y 383 (2019). Online.
- Mixed Signals: What Can We Expect from the Supreme Court in This Post-ADA Amendments Act Era, 35 Touro L. Rev. 435 (2019). Online.
- An Ambitious Approach: A Review of Lifetime Disadvantage, Discrimination and the Gendered Workforce, 22 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 125 (2018). Online.
- Cumulative Hardship, 25 George Mason L. Rev. 753 (2018). Online.
- Ending Harassment by Starting with Retaliation, 71 Stan. L. Rev. Online 49 (2018). Online.
- Mothers with Disabilities, 33 Berkeley J. of Gender, L. & Justice 75 (2018). Online.
- Public Policy and Workers' Rights: Wrongful Discipline Actions and Good-Faith Beliefs, 21 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol’y J. 511 (2017) (with Ann C. McGinley). Online.
- Accommodating Everyone, 47 Seton Hall L. Rev. 85 (2016). Online.
- Special Treatment Stigma after the ADA Amendments Act, 43 Pepperdine L. Rev. 213 (2016). Online.
- The Difficulty Accommodating Health Care Workers, 9 St. Louis J. Health L. & Pol'y 1 (2016). Online.
- A Defining Moment: A Review of Disability & Equity at Work, 18 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 289 (2015). Online.
- Caregiver Conundrum Redux: The Entrenchment of Structural Norms, 91 Denv. L. Rev. 963 (2015). Online.
- Susan Martyn: A Role Model, 47 Tol. L. Rev. 19 (2015). Online.
- The New ADA Backlash, 82 Tenn. L. Rev. 1 (2015). Online.
- What Disability Means to Me: When the Personal and Professional Collide, 5 HLRe: Off the Record 119 (2015) (solicited for Houston L. Rev's. Online Companion). Online.
- Withdrawn Accommodations, 63 Drake L. Rev. 885 (2015). Online.
- A Proposal to Improve the Workplace Law Curriculum from a Corporate Compliance Perspective, 58 St. Louis Univ. L. J. 155 (2014). Online.
- Choices, Bias, and the Value of the Paycheck Fairness Act: A Response Essay, 29 ABA J. Lab. & Emp. L. 429 (2014). Online.
- Finding a Fix for the FMLA: A New Perspective, a New Solution, 31 Hofstra Lab. & Emp. L. J. 327 (2014). Online.
- Mutual Marginalization: Individuals with Disabilities and Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities, 66 Fla. L. Rev. 1099 (2014). Online.
- Women, Unions, and Negotiation, 14 Nev. L. J. 465 (2014). Online.
- Martinizing Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 47 Ga L. Rev. 527 (2013). Online.
- The Blame Game: How the Rhetoric of Choice Blames the Achievement Gap on Women, 8 FIU L. Rev. 447 (2013). Online.
- Debunking the Market Myth in Pay Discrimination Cases, 12 Georgetown J. Gender & L. 159 (2011) (with Jessica Vartanian). Online.
- Embracing Caregiving and Respecting Choice: An Essay on the Debate over Changing Norms, 41 Sw L. Rev. 1 (2011). Online.
- Relieving (Most of) the Tension: A Review Essay of Samuel R. Bagenstos, Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement, 20 Cornell J L. & Public Pol'y 761 (2011). Online.
- Synergistic Solutions: An Integrated Approach to Solving the Caregiver Conundrum for Real Workers, 39 Stetson L. Rev. 777 (2010). Online.
- Why Care about Caregivers - Using Communitarian Theory to Justify Protection of Real Workers, 58 Kansas L. Rev. 355 (2010). Online.
- Re-Defining Superwoman: An Essay on Overcoming the Maternal Wall in the Legal Workplace, 13 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y 55 (2006). Online.
- Victimizing the Abused: Is Termination the Solution When Domestic Violence Comes to Work, 12 Mich. J. Gender & L. 275 (2006). Online.
- Sex Plus Age Discrimination: Protecting Older Women Workers, 81 Denver L. Rev. 79 (2003). Online.
- Marital Status Discrimination: A Proposal for Title VII Protection, 46 Wayne L. Rev. 1 (2000). Online.