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Michael J. Goldberg
Emeritus Professor of Law
A.B., Cornell University
J.D., Harvard Law School
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
About
Michael J. Goldberg is Emeritus Professor of Law at Widener University School of Law. He received an A.B., magna cum laude, from Cornell University in 1971, his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1975, and an LL.M. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1977. While in law school, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Following law school, Professor Goldberg clerked for a United States District Court judge in Rhode Island, and then practiced public interest law in three different settings: at the Institute for Public Representation at the Georgetown University Law Center, at the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office, in Seattle, Washington, and then as General Counsel of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, in Washington, D.C.
Professor Goldberg began his teaching career at Rutgers-Camden in 1981. He also taught at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Washington schools of law before joining the Widener faculty in 1989, when he became a charter member of the Harrisburg campus faculty. He relocated to the Wilmington campus in the fall of 1996.
He served in the Law School's administration from 1993-96, 2000-2004, and 2005-06, first as Dean of Faculty for both campuses, then as Associate Dean of the Harrisburg campus, Vice Dean of the Delaware campus, and during the 2005-06 academic year, as Acting Dean of the Law School.
Professor Goldberg teaches civil procedure, administrative law, legislation, and several courses in the labor and employment law area. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on labor law, labor history, and employment discrimination, and is a member of the Labor and Employment Law section of the ABA and the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He also serves on the boards of the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center and the Association for Union Democracy, and he frequently provides pro bono legal assistance to that organization and to rank and file reformers in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Longshoreman's Association, and other unions.
Why do lawyers matter?
Lawyers matter because our government is a government of laws, and lawyers play an essential role in keeping it that way. Individuals whose rights are violated by abuses of power depend on lawyers to hold government officials accountable and to keep our government a government of laws.
How do I “give back”?
In my pro bono work on behalf of union reformers, and in much of my charitable giving, I try to “give back” by assisting organizations that share my values of a more equitable and democratic society that serves the needs of all those participating in it.
Publications
Publications on Selected Works
Book Chapters
Chap. 13, Election of Union Officers, in National Lawyers Guild, Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law (Thomson-West, 2014 revisions) (I have been updating and revising this chapter, originally written by someone else, every other year since 2004).
Chap. 12, Rights of Union Members Within Their Unions, in National Lawyers Guild, Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law (Thomson-West, 2013 revisions) (I have been updating and revising this chapter, originally written by someone else, every other year since 2005).
Union Democracy, American Democracy, and Global Democracy: An Overview and Assessment,in Samuel Estreicher, Harry C. Katz & Bruce Kaufman, eds., The Internal Governance and Organizational Effectiveness of Labor Unions (2001).
Volume 9, T. KHEEL, LABOR LAW (Landrum-Griffin Act Chapters) (Matthew Bender, 1991 revisions).
Articles
Democracy in the Private Sector: The Rights of Shareholders and Union Members, 17 U. Pa. J. Bus. L. 393 (2015).
Present at the Creation: Clyde W. Summers and the Field of Union Democracy Law, 14 Employee Rts & Employment Pol’y J. 121 (2010).
In the Cause of Union Democracy, 41 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 759 (2008).
Teamster Reformers: Their Union, Their Jobs, Their Movement, 72 J. Transp. L. Logistics & Pol’y 13 (2005).
Inside Baseball at the NLRB: Chairman Gould and his Critics, 55 Stanford L. Rev. 1045 (2002).
Derailing Union Democracy: Why Deregulation Would be a Mistake, 23 Berkeley J of Employment & Lab. L. 137 (2002).
An Overview and Assessment of the Law Regulating Internal Union Affairs, 21 J. of Lab. Res. 15 (2000).
Law, Labor, and the Mainstream Press: Labor Day Commentaries on Labor and Employment Law, 1882-1935, 15 Lab. Law. 93 (1999).
Top Officers of Local Unions, 19 LAB. STUDIES J. 3 (Winter, 1995).
Cleaning Labor's House: Institutional Reform Litigation in the Labor Movement, 1989 DUKE L.J. 903 (1989).
The Teamsters Board of Monitors: An Experiment in Union Reform Litigation, 30 LAB. HISTORY 563 (1989).
Propensity to Sue and the Duty of Fair Representation: A Second Point of View, 41 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 456 (1988).
Evaluating Unions: Labor Economics and the Law, 84 MICH. L. REV. 1063 (1986) (Review of R. FREEMAN & J. MEDOFF, WHAT DO UNIONS DO?).
Waiting for Wygant: Affirmative Action in the Aftermath of Stotts, 38 N.Y.U. NAT'L CONF. ON LABOR 19-1 (1985).
The Duty of Fair Representation: What the Courts Do In Fact, 34 BUFF. L. REV. 89 (1985).
Affirmative Action in Union Government: The Landrum-Griffin Act Implications, 44 OHIO STATE L.J. 649 (1983).
Implying Punitive Damages in Employment Discrimination Cases, 9 HARV. CIV. RTS-CIV. LIB. L. REV. 525 (1974).
Book Review, 12 J. FAMILY L. 161 (1972) (Review of F. PIVEN & R. CLOWARD, REGULATING THE POOR: FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC WELFARE).
Other
Civil Litigation Flow Chart, in J. FRIEDENTHAL, A. MILLER, J. SEXTON & H. Hershkoff, 2014-2015 CIVIL PROCEDURE SUPPLEMENT (annually since 1985).
Gridlock at the NLRB: One Step Back, Two Steps Further Back, Labor Notes, Feb. 5, 2013.
Senate Gridlock Cripples NLRB, Labor Notes, Feb. 22, 2010.
The Way to Save Card Check, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2009.
STAA Handbook: How to Use the Surface Transportation Assistance Act to Enforce Truck Safety and Protect your Job (Detroit: Teamsters for a Democratic Union, 2000) (co-author).
Labor Day Thoughts on the Bork Nomination, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, Sept. 5, 1987 (Op-ed page).
Teamsters: More Oligarchy Than Democracy, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, May 23, 1983 (Op-ed page).
When Truck Drivers Are Whistleblowers, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, March 7, 1983 (Op-ed page).
KENTUCKY UNEMPLOYED WORKERS HANDBOOK (Louisville: Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization, 1972) (co-author).