Marion G. Crain, J.D., was installed as the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law March 30 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.
Rutledge served as the law school’s dean and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Before his deanship from 1931-35, he was a beloved law professor. As a former student remembered years later, Rutledge made everyone in his classes understand that the law’s ultimate goal is to produce fairness instead of advantage in its application.
Crain succeeds John O. Haley, J.D., as the Rutledge professor. Haley is now the William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law.
Kent D. Syverud, J.D., dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, said many parallels exist between Rutledge and Crain.
Rutledge’s authoritative biography, by John Ferren, is titled: “Salt of the Earth, Conscience of the Court.”
“Marion Crain’s scholarship and teaching is animated by a passion for justice, rigor in analysis and a healthy seasoning of the down-to-earth knowledge of how real people work and live,” Syverud said. “She is a wonderful citizen of Washington University.”
Crain’s scholarship examines the relationships among gender, work and class status, with a particular emphasis on collective action.
She is the co-author of two textbooks, “Labor Law: Cases and Materials” and “Work Law: Cases and Materials,” and is the co-editor, with Sen. John Edwards, J.D., and Arne Kalleberg, Ph.D., the Kenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, of “Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream.”
As part of her commitment to legal education, Crain serves on the executive committee of the Labor Law Group, an international collective of law professors dedicated to advancing pedagogy and scholarship on labor and employment law. She also is a past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Labor and Employment Law.
Crain serves on the editorial board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on labor and employment law.
Prior to joining the law faculty in 2008, Crain was the Paul Eaton Professor of Law and director of the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity at the University of North Carolina.
She also held faculty positions at West Virginia University and the University of Toledo.
Before entering teaching, Crain clerked for the Hon. Arthur L. Alarcon, LL.B., on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and practiced with Latham and Watkins in Los Angeles.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at Cornell University and a juris doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law.