Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, 1066 Foundation Chair and Director of the Center for WorkLife Law

Professor Joan C. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law, 1066 Foundation Chair, founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and Co-Director of the Project on Attorney Retention (PAR). She is a prize-winning author and expert on work/family issues. Her book, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford University Press, 2000), won the 2000 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award.  She has authored or co-authored four books and over fifty law review articles.  Her Beyond the Maternal Wall: Relief for Family Caregivers Who are Discriminated against on the Job, 26 Harvard Women’s Law Review 77 (2003), (co-authored with Nancy Segal), was prominently cited in Back v. Hastings on Hudson Union Free School District, 2004 U.S. App. Lexis 6684 (2d Cir. April 7, 2004).  She also has played a central role in organizing social scientists to document maternal wall bias, notably in a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues (2004), co-edited with Monica Biernat and Faye Crosby, which was awarded the Distinguished Publication Award by the Association for Women in Psychology.  In 2006, she received the Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement.

Courses Taught: Property, Feminist Legal Theory and Seminar on Current Issues on WorkLife Law

My favorite part about teaching you is... involving the students in making creative legal arguments that push the limits of the law. 

What I hope you get from a legal education at Hastings is... an appreciation for the diversity of American society, and the place creativity has in making you an outstanding lawyer.