J. H. Verkerke

  • T. Munford Boyd Professor of Law
  • Director, Program for Employment and Labor Law Studies

J.H. (Rip) Verkerke is a professor of law and director of the Program for Employment and Labor Law Studies at the University of Virginia School of Law. He earned an M.Phil. in economics and a J.D. from Yale University. He joined the UVA Law School faculty in 1991 after clerking for Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Verkerke teaches contracts, several employment law courses and a seminar on behavioral economic analysis of law.

A pioneer in the use of technology to support legal education, Verkerke was selected as an inaugural member of the University Academy of Teaching and won an All-University Teaching Award in 2007. In 2012, he received a Hybrid Challenge Grant for Technology-Enhanced Teaching to transform his first-year contracts class using the flipped classroom model of instruction. He currently chairs the University Committee on Information Technology.

Verkerke’s published research focuses on employment discrimination law, employment contracts, vicarious liability, the economics of discrimination, and contract theory. He has recently begun an empirical study of law school teaching practices and how those methods affect student experiences and outcomes. Verkerke is also the author of an open-source contract law casebook published by the CALI eLangdell Press.

Education

  • J.D.
    Yale Law School
    1990
  • M.Phil.
    Yale University
    1988
  • B.A.
    Loyola College
    1983

Forthcoming

Contract Doctrine, Theory and Practice - Principal Cases, CALI eLangdell Press (2 ed. 2023).
Contract Doctrine, Theory and Practice, CALI eLangdell Press (2 ed. 2023).
Deconstructing Employment Contract Law (with Rachel S. Arnow-Richman), Florida Law Review (2023).

Textbooks

Contract Doctrine, Theory & Practice2 , CALI eLangdell Press (1 ed. 2012).
Contract Doctrine, Theory & Practice3 , CALI eLangdell Press (1 ed. 2012).
Contract Doctrine, Theory & Practice1 , CALI eLangdell Press (1 ed. 2012).

Book Chapters

What We Know (and Don’t Know) About How Employment Protection Law Affects Employment, in Enterprise Law: Contracts, Markets, and Laws in the US and Japan, Edward Elgar, 53–69 (2014).
Discharge, in Labor and Employment Law and Economics, Edward Elgar, 447–479 (2009).
The Story of Woolley v. Hoffman-La Roche: Finding a Way to Enforce Employee Handbook Promises, in Employment Law Stories, Foundation Press, 23–65 (2007).
Towards an Economic Theory of Disability Discrimination Law, in NYU Working Papers on Labor and Employment Law, 1998-1999, Kluwer Law International, ch. 5 (2001).
The Triumph of Formalism in the Supreme Court’s Recent Employer Liability Decisions, in Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Proceedings of New York University 51st Annual Conference on Labor, Kluwer Law International, 345–360 (1999).
Employment Contract Law, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, Macmillan, 47–53 (1998).

Articles & Reviews

Has China’s Labor Contract Law Curtailed Economic Growth? (with Wenwen Ding), 99 Denver University Law Review 453–515 (2022).
Gender Differences in Law School Classroom Participation: The Key Role of Social Context (with Molly Bishop Shadel & Sophie Trawalter), 108 Virginia Law Review Online 30–54 (2022).
Employment Regulation and Youth Employment: A Critical Perspective, 38 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 803–816 (2015).
Legal Ignorance and Information-Forcing Rules, 56 William & Mary Law Review 899–960 (2015).
Disaggregating Antidiscrimination and Accomodation, 44 William & Mary Law Review 1385–1420 (2003).
Is the ADA Efficient?, 50 UCLA Law Review 903–958 (2003).
Legal Regulation of Employment Reference Practices, 65 University of Chicago Law Review 115–178 (1998).
Notice Liability in Employment Discrimination Law, 81 Virginia Law Review 273–385 (1995).
Free to Search, 105 Harvard Law Review 2080–2097 (1992).
Racial Disparity and Employment Discrimination Law: An Economic Perspective (with James J. Heckman), 8 Yale Law & Policy Review 276–298 (1990).
Responses to Epstein (with James J. Heckman), 8 Yale Law & Policy Review 320–323 (1990).
Open Questions in Defense Economics and Economic Warfare (with Martin Shubik), 33 Journal of Conflict Resolution 480–499 (1989).

Reports & Datasets

Current Courses

All Courses

Contracts
Employment Law: Contracts, Torts & Statutes
Employment Law: Health & Safety
Employment Discrimination Law
Behavioral Law and Economics (seminar)
Employment & Labor Law: A Global Perspective (seminar)
Workplace Norms and the Law (seminar)
Seminar in Ethical Values

IN THE NEWS

03/28/2018
01/21/2013
08/09/2012
04/02/2012
01/06/2012
02/01/2011
02/27/2008
11/20/2007
02/15/2006
12/05/2005
04/25/2005
11/16/2004
03/14/2002
Vicarious Liability for Employee Torts with Professor J.H. Verkerke

Featured Scholarship