Emily A. Spieler

Emily Spieler is Dean and Edwin W. Hadley Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law. Dean Spieler is an expert in labor and employment law. During the winter of 2008-2009, she served on President Obama's transition team for the Department of Labor. She has also served on the National Academy of Social Insurance Steering Committee on Workers' Compensation; on the National Academies Committee on Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers; as chair of the US Department of Energy Worker Advocacy Advisory Committee regarding implementation of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000; and on the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Institute for Work and Health (Toronto). She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, ex-officio member of the American Law Institute, and fellow and member of the board of governors of the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers.

Prior to beginning her academic career, Dean Spieler practiced labor and employment law in Boston, Massachusetts and West Virginia. She held several senior positions in West Virginia state government, including commissioner of the Workers' Compensation Fund; deputy attorney general for civil rights; commissioner of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission; and public member of the finance board of the West Virginia Public Employees' Insurance Agency. She joined the faculty of West Virginia University College of Law in 1990, where she taught courses in labor, employment, social insurance and health law until she joined the Northeastern University community in Boston in 2002. Dean Spieler is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Selected Publications

“Legal Remedies and Social Benefits for Occupationally and Environmentally Injured Workers” (with Boden and Leifer), Occupational Health: Recognizing and Preventing Work-Related Disease and Injury, 5th ed. Levy and Wegman, eds. Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2006.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act and Family Medical Leave Act,” Occupational Safety and Health Law. Rabinowitz, ed. American Bar Association treatise published by Bureau of National Affairs, 2002.
“Workers’ Compensation and Older Workers” (with Burton), Health and Income Security for An Aging Workforce, No.3, National Academy of Social Insurance, April 2001.
“On the Road: Images of Truthtelling in Rural America,” 6 Michigan Journal of Gender & Law 377, 2000.

“Assessing Fairness in Workers’ Compensation Reform: A Commentary on the 1995 West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Legislation,” 98 West Virginia Law Review 23, 1995.
“Social Welfare Policy in the Context of Economic Restructuring,” 30 Urban Studies 351, 1993.
“Can Coal Miners Escape Black Lung? An Analysis of the Coal Miner Job Transfer Program and Its Implications for Occupational Medical Removal Protection Programs,” 91 West Virginia Law Review 775, 1989.
“Is the US Chest X-Ray Surveillance Program Succeeding in Controlling Lung Disease?” (with Wagner), Proceedings of the VII International Conference on Pneumoconioses, 1988.