Background

Joseph Seiner is a Professor of Law and the Oliver Ellsworth Professor of Federal Practice at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law. 

Professor Seiner received his B.B.A., with High Distinction, from the University of Michigan in 1995, where he was an Angell Scholar.  Professor Seiner received his J.D., Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif, from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, in 1998.  Professor Seiner was a lead articles editor for the Washington and Lee Law Review. Following law school, Professor Seiner clerked for the late Honorable Ellsworth Van Graafeiland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. After his clerkship, he practiced law with Jenner & Block, LLP, in Chicago, Illinois, where he focused on labor and employment matters. In September, 2001, Professor Seiner accepted a position as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C., where he presented oral argument as lead counsel in the United States Courts of Appeals in employment discrimination cases.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, Professor Seiner was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he developed and taught a seminar on comparative employment discrimination. Professor Seiner has published over twenty law review articles, all in prestigious journals.  His work is routinely cited by the federal courts.

In 2017, Professor Seiner published The Supreme Court’s New Workplace with Cambridge University Press, a book which examines the intersection of workplace and procedural case law in the federal courts.  In 2021, he published another book with Cambridge, The Virtual Workplace, which explores how recent technological developments have impacted both employees and employers. 

Professor Seiner is currently working on a third book with Cambridge University Press, The Dignity of Work.  This text is scheduled for publication in 2026 and will examine the role of power and dignity in the United States workforce and in employment settings around the world.  Professor Seiner has also published three editions of his leading employment discrimination casebook with Aspen Publishing and is a co-author of the latest editions of Mastering Employment Discrimination (Carolina Academic Press) and Employment Law in a Nutshell (West Academic Press).

Professor Seiner has been featured in a number of national media sources, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Fortune. Professor Seiner is an author and co-editor of the Workplace Prof Blog. Upon invitation, Professor Seiner has submitted written testimony to committees in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

On October 1, 2024, Professor Seiner was appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to be a Presiding Member of the U.S. Foreign Service Grievance Board.  During this two-year appointment Professor Seiner is serving as a Presiding Chair of a rotating three-member panel, with the other two annuitant members comprised of distinguished Foreign Service dignitaries.  The U.S. Foreign Service Grievance Board provides due process to and helps resolve disputes involving members of the U.S. Foreign Service.

Teaching

• Comparative Employment Discrimination Seminar (LAWS 623)
• Employment Discrimination (LAWS 624)
• Principles of Labor Law (LAWS 626)
• Individual Employment Law (LAWS 630)
• ADR in Employment Law Workshop (LAWS 811)

Selected Scholarship

See Curriculum Vitae for complete scholarship.

Books

• The Dignity of Work (Cambridge University Press) (forthcoming 2026)
• Mastering Employment Discrimination Law (Carolina Academic Press 3d ed.) (forthcoming 2025) (with J. Hirsch & S. Sperino)
• Employment Discrimination: Procedure, Principles & Practice (Aspen Pub. 3d ed. 2023)
• Employment Law in a Nutshell, 5th Edition (West 2022) (with R. Covington)
• The Virtual Workplace (Cambridge University Press 2021)
• The Supreme Court’s New Workplace (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Articles

• Workplace Dignity, 66 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. __ (2025) (forthcoming)
• Workplace Power, 64 B.C. L. Rev. 55 (2024)
• Sensible Just Cause, 103 B.U. Law Rev. 1295 (forthcoming 2023)
• Time, Equity, and Sexual Harassment, 12 U.C. Irvine L. Rev. 573 (2022) 
• Plausible Harassment, 54 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1295 (2021) 
• The Discrimination Presumption, 94 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1115 (2019)
• Platform Pleading, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 1947 (2019)
• A Modern Union for the Modern Economy, 86 Fordham L. Rev. 1727 (2018) (with J. Hirsch)
• Tailoring Class Actions to the On-Demand Economy, 77 Ohio State L.J. 21 (2017)
• Commonality and the Constitution, 91 Ind. L.J. 455 (2016)
• Navigating the Uber Economy, 49 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1511 (2016) (with B. Means)
• The Issue Class, 56 B.C. L. Rev. 121 (2015)
• Weathering Wal-Mart, 89 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1343 (2014)
• Plausibility and Disparate Impact, 64 Hastings L.J. 287 (2013)
• Punitive Damages, Due Process, and Employment Discrimination, 97 Iowa L. Rev. 473 (2012)
• Plausibility Beyond the Complaint, 53 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 987 (2012)
• After Iqbal, 45 Wake Forest L. Rev. 179 (2010)
• Does Ricci Herald a New Disparate Impact?, 90 B.U. L. Rev. 2181 (2010) (with B. Gutman)
• Pleading Disability, 51 B.C. L. Rev. 95 (2010)
• The Trouble with Twombly: A Proposed Pleading Standard for Employment Discrimination Cases, 2009 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1011 (2009)
• The Failure of Punitive Damages in Employment Discrimination Cases: A Call for Change, 50 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 735 (2008)