UW Law Professor James E. Jones, Jr. has been honored by the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools for his outstanding contributions to the field and teaching of labor relations and employment law.

A 1956 graduate of the UW Law School, Jones moved to Washington immediately upon earning his J.D. There he performed pioneering work at the U.S. Department of Labor, beginning as a legislative attorney and eventually becoming Associate Solicitor of Labor for the Division of Labor Relations and Civil Rights. He returned to Wisconsin to teach at the UW Law School in 1969, and has remained an active participant in Law School affairs and the legal profession ever since. He took the title of Professor Emeritus in 1993.

Introducing Jones at the AALS ceremony to honor him in January 2004 was Vicki Schultz, who is Ford Foundation Professor of Law at Yale Law School and who began her teaching career at the UW Law School, teaching labor law with Jones as her mentor.

Schultz cited Jones for his contributions to affirmative action jurisprudence; for drafting the rules and recommended procedures for arbitrators in labor management relations in federal government employment that were subsequently incorporated into the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978; framing the University of Wisconsin's basic policy on minority programs, including the Law School's Legal Education Opportunity program (LEO); for initiating the Law School's William H. Hastie Minority Teaching Fellowship in 1973; and for teaching the first known full-semester law course on employment discrimination law.

Schultz told Professor Jones, "You have done so much to develop the fields of labor and employment discrimination law ? including your important contributions in the field of affirmative action. I can't think of anyone who is more deserving."

Submitted by on January 26, 2004

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