David C. Yamada

Biography

David Yamada is a tenured Professor of Law and Director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School, where he is a globally recognized authority on workplace bullying and psychological abuse. He wrote the first comprehensive law review article on workplace bullying (Georgetown Law Journal, 2000), and his model legislation -- known as the Healthy Workplace Bill -- has become the template for enacted and proposed workplace anti-bullying laws and ordinances in the U.S.

Professor Yamada also is a leading expert on the legal implications of unpaid internships and on the field of therapeutic jurisprudence. His Minding the Workplace blog, which examines topics such as workplace bullying, dignity at work, and employment law and policy, has attracted some 1.3 million page views since its 2008 founding. He frequently has been sought out by the media on topics related to his work, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education, Bloomberg, Associated Press, National Public Radio, MSNBC, and ProPublica.

Professor Yamada’s current pro bono service includes the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence (founding board chair), Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (board member), Western Institute for Social Research (board chair), Americans for Democratic Action Education Fund (board chair), Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (board member), and the Workplace Bullying Institute (affiliated scholar).

At Suffolk, Professor Yamada has served as the founding director of both the SPILG summer public service fellowship program and the Rappaport Honors Program in Law and Public Service. His internal service includes serving on the Faculty Senate and the University Faculty Handbook Committee.

In recent years, Professor Yamada has been honored for his work by the International Academy for Law and Mental Health (Bruce Winick Award for Contributions to Therapeutic Jurisprudence), Valparaiso University (Alumni Achievement Award), Americans for Democratic Action (Winn Newman Lifetime Achievement Award), and Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (Lifetime Achievement Award). Professor Yamada earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he served on the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics and received the Arthur T. Vanderbilt Medal for extraordinary contributions to the School of Law. He practiced for six years as a public interest lawyer in New York City before entering legal academe.

Education

• JD, New York University
• MA (Labor & Policy Studies), SUNY-Empire State College
• BA, Valparaiso University, Indiana

Selected Publications

Articles

• Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Foundations, Expansion, and Assessment, 75 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW REVIEW 660 (2021).
• The Legal and Social Movement Against Unpaid Internships, 8 NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY LAW JOURNAL 357 (2016).
• Emerging American Legal Responses to Workplace Bullying, 22 TEMP. POL. & CIV. RTS. L. REV. 329 (2013)
• Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Practice of Legal Scholarship, 41 U. MEMPHIS L. REV. 121 (2010)
• Workplace Bullying and American Employment Law: A Ten-Year Progress Report and Assessment, 32 COMP. LAB. L. & POL'Y J. 251 (2010)
• Employment Law As If People Mattered: Bringing Therapeutic Jurisprudence into the Workplace, 11 FLA. COASTAL L. REV. 257 (2010) (Symposium contribution)
• Human Dignity and American Employment Law, 43 U. RICH. L. REV. 523 (2009)
• Crafting a Legislative Response to Workplace Bullying, 8 EMP. RTS. & EMP. POL'Y J. 475 (2004) (symposium contribution)
• The Employment Law Rights of Student Interns, 35 CONN. L. REV. 215 (2002)
• The Phenomenon of “Workplace Bullying” and the Need for Status-Blind Hostile Work Environment Protection, 88 GEO. L.J. 475 (2000)
• Voices from the Cubicle: Protecting and Encouraging Private Employee Speech in the Post-Industrial Workplace, 19 BERKELEY J. EMP. & LAB. L. 1 (1998)
• Beyond “Economic Realities”: The Case for Amending Federal Employment Discrimination Laws to Include Independent Contractors, 38 B.C.L. REV. 239 (1997) (with Lewis L. Maltby) The Regulation of Pre-Employment Honesty Testing: Striking a Temporary(?) Balance Between Self-Regulation and Prohibition, 39 WAYNE L. REV. 1549 (1993)

Books

MAUREEN DUFFY & DAVID C. YAMADA, EDS., WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING IN THE UNITED STATES (SANTA BARBARA, CA: PRAEGER/ABC-CLIO, 2018).

Book Chapters

• Bullying and the Law: Gradual Progress on a Global Scale, in STALE EINARSEN, ET AL., EDS., BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: DEVELOPMENTS IN THEORY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 3RD ED. (LONDON: TAYLOR & FRANCIS, 2020).
• Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Intellectual Activism And Legislation, in NIGEL STOBBS, LORANA BARTELS & MICHEL VOLS, EDS., THE METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICE OF THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE (DURHAM, NC: CAROLINA ACADEMIC PRESS, 2019).
• (With Maureen Duffy and Peggy Ann Berry) Workplace Bullying and Mobbing: Definitions, Terms, and When They Matter, in MAUREEN DUFFY & DAVID C. YAMADA, EDS., WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING IN THE UNITED STATES (SANTA BARBARA, CA: PRAEGER/ABC-CLIO, 2018)
• The American Legal Landscape: Potential Redress and Liability for Workplace Bullying and Mobbing, in MAUREEN DUFFY & DAVID C. YAMADA, EDS., WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING IN THE UNITED STATES (SANTA BARBARA, CA: PRAEGER/ABC-CLIO, 2018)
• Workplace Bullying and the Law: Emerging Global Responses, in STALE EINARSEN, ET AL., EDS., BULLYING AND HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: DEVELOPMENTS IN THEORY, RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2ND ED. (LONDON: TAYLOR & FRANCIS, 2011).
• The Adult Educator as Public Intellectual, in CHALLENGING THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF ADULT EDUCATION: JOHN OHLIGER AND CONTRADICTIONS IN MODERN PRACTICE (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Andre P. Grace and Tonette S. Rocco eds., 2009)
• The Role of the Law in Combating Workplace Mobbing and Bullying, in WORKPLACE MOBBING IN ACADEME: REPORTS FROM TWENTY UNIVERSITIES (Kenneth Westhues ed., 2004)
• Workplace Bullying and the Law: Towards a Transnational Consensus?, in BULLYING AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES IN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (Stale Einarsen ed., 2003)

Media

Blogs

• MINDING THE WORKPLACE  (2008-present) – With over 1,800 published articles since its 2008 launch, MTW has attracted over 1.3 million page views and over 1,960 individual subscribers, with approximately 1/3 international readership.
• MORE THAN A SONG: ADVENTURES IN LIFELONG LEARNING AND ADULT EDUCATION (2021-present) -- New blog on adult education and lifelong learning for both career enhancement and personal enrichment.

Recent Short Articles

• The Road from November 1980, THE AMERICAN COMMENTATOR (July 2022).
• Ahab Rages and Odysseus Weeps: Trauma as a Core Concept for Humanistic Inquiry, in HARRISON MIDDLETON UNIVERSITY BLOG (June 2022).
• Book Review of ZENA HITZ, LOST IN THOUGHT: THE HIDDEN PLEASURES OF AN INTELLECTUAL LIFE (2020), in HARRISON MIDDLETON UNIVERSITY DIALOGUES (May 2022).
• 6 ways to fight workplace bullying in legal spaces, ABA JOURNAL WEB EXTRA (December 2021)
• Should Public Policy Center on Society’s Well-Being?, THE AMERICAN COMMENTATOR (October 2020).
• Homecoming at Middle Age, LXXXI THE CRESSET No. 1, 4 (2017) (essay reflecting upon collegiate life at Valparaiso University circa 1980 and the current relevance of political, social, and economic events of that time).

Representative Media Interviews

• Eric Thomas, White House to start paying interns this fall, KCBS (2022).
• Ron Lieber, Why We Still Haven’t Solved the Unpaid Internship Problem, NEW YORK TIMES (2022).
• Amanda Robert, David Yamada is fighting to end workplace bullying, ABA JOURNAL (2021).
• Gene Maddaus, Scott Rudin Scandal Could Spur Efforts to Make Workplace Bullying Illegal, VARIETY (2021).
• Olivia Peterkin, Hawaii has the worst unemployment recovery in the US, report says, PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS (2020).
• Erin Fuchs, ‘Small jabs’: Women 89% more likely to experience gender-based ‘microaggressions’ at work, YAHOO! FINANCE (2020).
• Colin Kalmbacher, Could You Be Legally Fired If You Contract the Coronavirus? Experts Say These Are ‘Uncharted Waters', LAW AND CRIME (2020).
• Malia Wollan, How to Deal With a Verbally Abusive Boss, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (2020).
• Jessica Press, Women Need to Know They Don’t Have to Take Bullying in the Workplace, REDBOOK MAGAZINE (2018).
• Beenish Ahmed, Summer Interns in NYC Learned a Lot – Including How to Live on Nearly Nothing, WYNC-FM (2018).

Honors and Awards

Internal Honors and Recognition

• Charles Kindregan Award for outstanding scholarship at Suffolk University Law School (2021)
• Dean’s Faculty Fellowship for outstanding scholarship (2013)
• Thomas J. McMahon Award for outstanding dedication to the student body (1998, 2007)
• Alexander J. Cella Memorial Award for outstanding dedication to the SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW (2008)

External Honors and Recognition

• Fellowship in Ideas, Harrison Middleton University (2022)
• ABA JOURNAL, “Members Who Inspire” (Dec. 2021/Jan. 2022)
• Bruce Winick Award (outstanding contributions to the field of therapeutic jurisprudence), International Academy of Law and Mental Health, XXXVI International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Rome, Italy (2019)
• Alumni Achievement Award, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN (2016).
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, Columbia University Dispute Resolution Network, New York, NY (2015).
• Winn Newman lifetime achievement award, Americans for Democratic Action, Washington, D.C. (2015).

Current Pro Bono Service

• Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (board member)
• Americans for Democratic Action Education Fund (board chair)
• International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence (founding board chair and board member)
• Western Institute for Social Research (board chair)
• Workplace Bullying Institute (affiliated scholar)

Bar Admittance

• Massachusetts (1995)
• New York (1986)