21st Annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL)

In the mid 2000s, three workplace law professors Joe Slater, Scott Moss, and Paul Secunda developed the idea of having an informal meeting to workshop ideas for research in the areas of employment and labor law. They ended up naming their initiative the Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law, COSELL.
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Since 2006, COSELL has brought together dozens of scholars each year to present, hear, and provide feedback on research and scholarship in labor law, employment law, and related areas, such as litigation or ADR. COSELL embraces a range of methodologies and theoretical approaches including critical legal studies and empirical approaches (among others). The conference has been held in law schools across the country, from UCLA to Northwestern to Seton Hall Law.

COSELL aims to be open to all: there is no charge to attend; it rotates among schools that volunteer to host and sponsor; and presentations can be made by not only professors, but also practitioners and aspiring professors and scholars.

COSELL is where the recipients are announced for two awards: the Paul Steven Miller Award to a senior scholar who has shown outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment scholarship, and the Michael J. Zimmer Award to a rising scholar who values workplace justice and community, and who has made significant contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship.

COSELL is an informal organization supported by the COSELL Legacy Committee. The current committee consists of Rachel Arnow-Richman (Florida), Doron Dorfman (Seton Hall), Catherine Fisk (UC Berkeley), Ann Juliano (Villanova), and Nicole Porter (William and Mary).

COSELL 2026 will take place on Friday, September 18 (9:00am–6:00pm) and Saturday, September 19 (9:00am–12:30pm) at Berkeley Law in Berkeley, CA. 

The COSELL Legacy Committee